Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside community launches police oversight project

The Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users (VANDU) is launching a community-led police oversight project, the group announced at a news conference Thursday.

The project — Police Oversight with Evidence and Research, or P.O.W.E.R. — is intended to allow members of the Downtoan Eastside (DTES) to formally report negative experiences with any law enforcement — specifically the Vancouver Police Department (VPD).

“VANDU is going to open community drop-ins to collect narratives, stories, data on the way that police behave in Vancouver,” said Tyson Singh Kelsall, a registered social worker with P.O.W.E.R.

This move comes after years of what the group calls high-profile VPD-related deaths and injuries on Hastings Street.

“We believe that the lack of accountability and accurate reporting from police, including the harms caused, that the community, with VANDU, had to form the group P.O.W.E.R.,” said the group’s lead, Dave Hamm.

Members of VANDU say the community-led research project will collect and analyze interactions with law enforcement in the hopes of advancing police accountability in Vancouver.

“From transit cops to park rangers to the VPD, law enforcement perpetuates violence across our communities without any meaningful public accountability,” said Molly Beatrice, a P.O.W.E.R research assistant with VANDU.

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One example cited in Thursday’s news conference was a 2022 incident in which a VPD officer hit a pedestrian on East Hastings with his cruiser.

VPD media relations officer Const. Tania Visintin says there is already an established system to deal with issues like these, saying complaints can be made directly to the Office of Police Complaint Commissioner (OPCC).

“If anybody has interactions with the police, they’re not satisfied with that interaction, they feel…any of their rights have been violated, we do have a complaint process in place,” she said.

“We also have a large oversight, which we’ve talked about a lot. The OPCC is our oversight.”

P.O.W.E.R. organizers say depending on the trends and data that roll in, they will likely end up compiling academic and community-based reports for evidence.

Community drop-ins will be held every Wednesday from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., starting July 10.