When Dean Wilson filed a complaint against the Vancouver police five years ago, all he wanted was a simple apology. The 51-year-old drug user recalled that he was inside his room in the Sunrise Hotel on East Hastings Street when he saw a woman standing on the ledge of a window one unit away. Believing the woman was about to commit suicide, he ran to the lobby and called 911.

Police arrived 30 minutes later and, as Wilson remembers, six officers went to his room. The woman by that time had already gone inside another room. But the police insisted on going inside his room. Wilson said he told them to shove off.

"I would not accept the fact that they just want to walk into my house," Wilson related to the Georgia Straight. "It had nothing to do with drugs. It was about this lady who was committing suicide. It was a half-an-hour report. They kicked the door open. Two guys held me. One guy gave me a couple of shots. They said, 'Stay here; we're going in.' The thing was, the police wouldn't accept the fact that I–utilizing standard Canadian law and my charter rights–would not let them in my house without a warrant."

On November 5 this year, Wilson finally got the apology he wanted, along with the 51 other residents of the Downtown Eastside who had filed complaints of police abuse. They were assisted by the nonprofit Pivot Legal Society.

In a news release that day, the Vancouver police department stated that it "believes that this marks the beginning of a new era of improved service to the residents of the Downtown Eastside". In a three-page statement, the department expressed "regrets" that "positive changes" in "policies and procedures" made between 2004 and 2006 were not at hand when the complaints were made. These included an end to police "searches of citizens' rooms in the DTES without authority".

What wasn't mentioned was that a few months before the apology was made, Vancouver police chief Jim Chu, who replaced Jamie Graham in August, gave orders for the department to improve its relationship with residents of the Downtown Eastside. The task fell on the shoulders of Insp. John de Haas, head of the VPD's diversity and aboriginal policing section.

"Chief Chu, right when he came to office, spoke to me about it," de Haas told the Georgia Straight. "He made it clear to me to pay close attention to the safety of marginalized people. It speaks well about the desire of the current chief to have a constructive understanding and working relationship with marginalized people so we can make the city safer."

Over the past two months, de Haas said that he has had exploratory discussions with Pivot Legal Society and the Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users, of which Wilson is a former president.

"We have different viewpoints as to what the safety issues are," de Haas said. "There's a common goal or vision that the Downtown Eastside should be safer for marginalized people whether they're homeless or drug-addicted or in the sex industry or poor."

De Haas pointed that the VPD apology, which Pivot cofounder John Richardson earlier said was made possible through Chu's leadership, shows "the human side of the police department".

Through past initiatives by de Haas, the VPD has made progress in improving ties with aboriginal youth. As well, following developments that led to the arrest and trial of alleged serial killer Robert William Pickton, the department has softened its approach to dealing with sex-trade workers.

The one issue that poses a big challenge to building a constructive association between the police and people in the Downtown Eastside is the prevalence of open drug dealing and drug consumption in the poor neighbourhood. According to the Vancouver Coastal Health Authority, about one in three of the city's estimated 12,000 injection-drug users live in this part of town. An average of 600 addicts per day visit the area's supervised injection site, where they bring their own heroin, morphine, and cocaine. In October, the federal Conservative government informed the VCHA, which operates the injection site, that the facility can operate only until June 30, 2008.

The drug issue is a challenge de Haas is very much aware of. "The public policy and the law relative to drugs is not an area that the police determines," he said. "We don't influence public policy, and we're expected to implement policy. Both sides need to talk about it. I don't think anyone advocates drug addiction."

Although drug legalization isn't on the near horizon, Wilson said that one thing police can do is lay off drug users who deal on the side to feed their habit.

"This is not this gangland shooting and the murders and that," Wilson said, referring to the recent high-profile killings that police have linked to organized crime. "This is not like getting killed in front of a $5.5 million mansion, you know what I mean?"

Wilson also said that police shouldn't subject residents to unreasonable searches on the streets.

De Haas said that the way police and residents interact will get better if each side understands where the other is coming from.

"If you don't understand the other side, then you interpret their behaviour from your own paradigm, and you become judgmental," de Haas said. "That's working both ways. Marginalized people are very judgmental about police activities and interpret it as harsh, uncaring. And the police, on the other [hand], see illegal behaviour and tend to think people behave in ways they have chosen to behave."

Link: Pivot complaint - VPD acknowledgment [pdf file]