Police 'properly equipped' for de-escalation, chief insists

Ottawa police Chief Charles Bordeleau said the forcehas poured "significant" resources into de-escalation training to ensure encounters between officers and mentally ill people don'tturn fatal.

Bordeleau made thecomments in in interview with CBC News on Wednesday, less than a week after the fatal shooting of Greg Ritchie during an encounterwith police.According to relatives, the Indigenous manwas dealing with mental health issues and was on his way to pick up medication from a pharmacy when he was killed outside Elmvale Acres Shopping Centre.

• Greg Ritchie ID'd as man shot and killed by police at mall
• Brother of slain man says police need better mental health training

"The whole piece around de-escalation is an area where we have invested significant training," Bordeleau said. "[We are] ensuring that our officers are awareand have the knowledge when they are dealing with people in a mental health crisis."

Bordeleau said he's confident the training has been effective.

"I am confident that the officers that are out there are properly equipped."

Tragic exceptions

His comments also come as the manslaughter trial ofConst. Daniel Montsion,accused in the death of Abdirahman Abdi, unfolds in an Ottawa courtroom. Abdiwas also dealing with mental health issues at the time of his death in July 2016.

Bordeleausaid those incidents were tragic, but characterized them as exceptions.

"One of the things that is not talked about is the dozens of incidents each day ... when our officers are dealing with people in crisis,whether it is mental health issues or other types of crisis,where our officers are actually successfully de-escalating."

Bordeleau said he has reached out to members of Ottawa'sIndigenous community to explore the possibility of a meeting with Ritchie'sfamily.