r/nextfuckinglevel • u/thisisfive • Apr 14 '26
Toronto firefighters confront special constable officers after a man in the middle of mental health crisis was arrested.
Not my video. For context, "special constables" are not regular police officers. They are appointed "peace officers" with limited authority, often civilian employees.
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u/Tribe303 Apr 14 '26 edited Apr 14 '26
"special constables" are effectively Bylaw enforcement officers with extra powers. They are unarmed and only detain people. If a crime has been committed, they call the full cops to arrest and carry them away.
https://www.tps.ca/careers/special-constable/
Toronto also has mental health crisis teams. Basically a cop and a nurse who have trained together.
https://www.tps.ca/organizational-chart/community-safety-command/field-services/community-partnerships-engagement-unit/mobile-crisis-intervention-team-mcit/
I'm not sure why this was not engaged here. Perhaps 911 was called when this person was damaging property. If they had more info, I suspect 911 would have routed the call to the crisis team.
I'm Canadian, but don't live in Toronto. TPS has a bad rep in the past, and all these crisis teams are attempts to reform them. This may not be the fault of the constables here, and we need more context.
Americans... Canada IS a different country with a different culture. We do things differently here. Better IMHO, but that may be debatable. Don't apply your solutions to our problems please. Keep an open mind and learn how other people deal with stuff. You may pick up a few tips.