Skip to content

91% of EPS-encounter deaths involved mental illness / addiction

Original source: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/most-people-killed-in-encounters-with-edmonton-police-have-mental-health-problems-1.4603170 Retrieved: 2026-07-04 (CBC blocks direct fetch; retrieved via reader proxy r.jina.ai. Deadly Force series, 2018.)

Key facts

  • 23 people died in encounters with EPS between 2000 and 2017.
  • 21 of 23 (91%) had a mental illness, disability, substance-abuse problem, or a combination.
  • Alberta-wide: 79% of 71 police-encounter deaths (2000–2017) involved mental-health issues.
  • Named case: Trevor Proudman, 32, with Prader-Willi syndrome — died of positional asphyxia after being handcuffed and left in a police van 23 minutes (2014).
  • Quotes — Maureen Harland (mother): "Police need to learn how to deal with the special people in the world. Patience." Retired criminologist Keith Spencer: "As long as we insist on using police to try to handle people who are mentally ill or have social problems like addictions … it's very difficult to expect promising outcomes."

This is the crisis-response point: the overwhelming majority of people EPS kills are in mental-health or addictions crisis — the exact population a funded non-police crisis response exists to serve.