More foot patrols by police and the increased presence of other social service groups seems to be improving safety around Thunder Bay's many waterways, according to a report released Tuesday at the monthly meeting of the northwestern Ontario city's police board.

Since November 2016, the Thunder Bay Police Service, through Project Floodway – an initiative which grew out of the recommendations of the Seven Youth Inquest – has been tracking the number of times officers encounter and help people in the vicinity of the city's rivers and floodways.

The report showed that in 2017, police attended 451 incidents, with five drownings, while those numbers dropped to 305 incidents and one drowning in 2018, said Insp. Ryan Gibson of the Community Services Branch.

'What's best for this person?'

"The vast majority of our cases involve a combination of alcohol and mental health issues," said Gibson. "For our officers, we want these people to be safe. When they're going there, they're trying to make an assessment 'what's the best for this person at this time' and they want to make sure they can go to a place of safety if needed and there's different options for that, depending on what's available."

The report showed eight life-saving water rescues in 2018, compared to five in 2017. In 75 per cent of those cases, the people had mental health issues and were stating they wanted to die.

"Water, for everyone, is something we're all drawn to naturally as human beings. We need it. And it's not surprising that someone who may be experiencing a crisis would be drawn to something like that, for whatever is going on inside of them at that time," said Gibson.

In total, at least one-fifth of all tracked incidents in 2018 resulted in some measure of life-saving engagement by police, fire, or ambulance.

Help people find 'somewhere safe to be'

"There's a percentage of people in every society that struggle and I think that that's where we come together as a group and try to find those resources where they have somewhere safe to be," said Gibson.

This graphic gives an overview of the incidents attended by Thunder Bay police along the northwestern Ontario city's waterways during 2017. (Thunder Bay Police Service)

The study also noted that many incidents involved people who were intoxicated and either unconscious or sleeping near rivers. According to the report, in those cases people were taken somewhere like the Detoxification Centre or the Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre, or they were arrested for public intoxication, warrants, and breaches. However, if the person had been drinking, but was not intoxicated, they were moved along to a safer place and cautioned for risky behavior.

The report stated that officers may be dealing with the same person in a variety of situations such as "police may respond to a pan-handler at a busy intersection who is moved along and then attends a nearby business and becomes unwanted, who is moved along again, only to end up intoxicated near the riverbank and dealt with a third time".

Summer is busiest time for incidents

Youth under the age of 22 made up just five per cent of the total number of people police encountered at the waterways, with the median age being 33, from a range of 14 years old to 73. But the report did state "It was also possible that youth simply moved to more remote locations to consume intoxicants as they had a greater fear of police and risked facing greater consequences from parents and educators if caught. Additional efforts in education and enforcement could help reduce this number in the future."

This graphic gives an overview of the incidents attended by Thunder Bay police along the northwestern Ontario city's waterways during 2018. (Thunder Bay Police Service)

The summer months are the busiest months for incidents near the waterways, with the majority occurring around the Neebing/McIntyre Floodway in the vicinity of the Thunder Centre shopping area.

Gibson cautioned people about drawing too many conclusions from just two years of data, but said there is reason for optimism.

"I think that as along as we continue to engage with those other partnerships and the steps the community is already taking, you look at the recent grant the city received for youth activities, those are all eventually going to have a net effect on calls for services and issues like this."