I know there is a pilot project in Calgary, Durham and Toronto. People there are also trying to adopt a more coordinated approach. Financial savings are not necessarily the main focus.
One of the challenges we have had is that we have securitized many police interventions by virtue of calling police officers to them. I think the greatest benefit of this approach is that we de-securitize certain types of interventions and we recognize them for what they are, which is that these are relationship problems, mental health problems, or public health problems. These are not ultimately functions we want to securitize. When we send a police offer and we securitize them, we have a much greater chance of these individuals ending up in the justice system. In the justice system they're usually not particularly well served, plus it's also the single most expensive way of solving any one particular approach.
I'm not sure, for instance, that sending a social worker with a police officer necessarily generates cost savings per se, especially if you have to call out the social worker, who then works on time-and-a-half or double-time pay or whatnot. Overall, you can provide a much more effective service to the individual, and you can have a much greater chance of keeping that individual out of the security and justice system by having a coordinated intervention that is based on professionals as well as the community.