iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

P.O.W.E.R. @policeoversight.ca · 03/10/2026

these are dimes www.ctvnews.ca/vancouver/ar...

a picture of the 22 dimes police seized spread out

P.O.W.E.R. @policeoversight.ca · 05/08/2026

an important reminder from Samona that despite the copaganda, the Downtown Eastside still exists and so do the people who call it home:

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P.O.W.E.R. @policeoversight.ca · 25/06/2026

Study participants "perceived that many of their law enforcement interactions were likely undocumented. For example, Participant #8 bluntly stated “No.” when asked, “And do they ever give you, like, a charge or paperwork or anything?”" www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Confiscations, public health obstructions, and perpetual displacement: Experiences and perspectives on urban law enforcement practices during a period of “recriminalization”

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P.O.W.E.R. @policeoversight.ca · 25/06/2026

www.policeoversight.ca/p/fifa-polic... bsky.app/profile/jens...

police bending over to search someone's bag- a near constant near Main & Hastings now

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P.O.W.E.R. @policeoversight.ca · 18/05/2026

- Seizure and destruction of drug use equipment - $1,000 bylaw ticket - $250 for smoking a cigarette on East Hastings Street VPD policing of public space as FIFA draws near: www.policeoversight.ca/p/prefifa-po... #vanpoli

graphic of headline: Pre-FIFA barrage of policing public space
Order maintenance policing can generate (publicly funded) disorder

with image of police officers in red vests

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P.O.W.E.R. @policeoversight.ca · 02/05/2026

Drug-related overdose is now the leading cause of maternal death among Vancouver Coastal Health residents: www.vch.ca/en/news/chie...

Key findings

The report analyzes more than a decade of maternal and infant health data and finds:

Drug-related overdose is now the leading cause of maternal death among VCH residents. Nearly half of maternal deaths within one year of pregnancy were directly caused by overdose with deaths clustering in the first three months after birth.

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P.O.W.E.R. @policeoversight.ca · 02/05/2026

2016 - 2024 www2.gov.bc.ca/assets/gov/b...

Deaths of Individuals Experiencing Homelessness by Classification of Death, 2016-2024

Classification 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024
Accidental 114 138 139 95 130 267 337 450 437
Accidental Unregulated Drug Toxicity 95 129 122 80 119 247 313 424 396
Other Accidental 19 9 17 15 11 20 24 26 41
Natural 30 11 20 29 11 24 22 29 44
Suicide 20 10 5 11 5 8 7 7 14
Undetermined 14 7 4 2 8 3 5 6 9
Homicide 5 0 1 3 3 1 10 3 3
Total 183 166 169 140 157 303 381 495 507

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P.O.W.E.R. @policeoversight.ca · 02/05/2026

via the BC CDC. is this an emergency response? www.policeoversight.ca/p/fifa-polic... bsky.app/profile/poli... #drugsky

A poster reads: Medetomidine is in BC's unregulated drug supply and can be harmful, outlines steps to use substances more safely

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P.O.W.E.R. @policeoversight.ca · 24/04/2026

www.policeoversight.ca/p/cop-city

In February 2024, one police board member quit, pointing to Lowe’s apparent conflicts of interest. Both of Lowe’s employment roles during her board tenure have been directing organizations (Sun Yat-Sen Gardens; H.R. MacMillan Space Centre) that rely on city funding, making it less likely she would oppose Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim’s direction.

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P.O.W.E.R. @policeoversight.ca · 16/04/2026

Newsletter: www.policeoversight.ca/p/fundswifa

"In solidarity with sex workers interrupting criminalization" over graphic

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P.O.W.E.R. @policeoversight.ca · 16/04/2026

regulate the drug supply bsky.app/profile/ctvn...

text screenshot: The bust was conducted by Chilliwack RCMP, Emergency Response Team members and Clandestine Lab Enforcement and Response Team members, and used “several hundred thousand dollars” of funding from B.C.’s anti-gang task force the Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit, according to the UFVRD.

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P.O.W.E.R. @policeoversight.ca · 12/04/2026

“The optics are, ‘Oh, the police get everything they want,’” Vancouver police board member Lorraine Lowe said, shortly before she voted to endorse another $50 million be directed to the Vancouver Police Department From November: www.policeoversight.ca/p/cop-city

Vancouver's Cop City Budget - Next year's municipal budget is set to allocate (more than) half a billion dollars toward policing

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P.O.W.E.R. @policeoversight.ca · 11/01/2026

www.thestar.com/news/gta/pol... bsky.app/profile/mark...

Police spending has ‘no consistent correlation’ with lower crime rates, new Canadian study says
“I think a lot of people simply assume that more money for the police will mean safer communities,” said co-author Akwasi Owusu-Bempah. “We’re demonstrating that that’s not the case.”

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P.O.W.E.R. @policeoversight.ca · 13/11/2025

vancouver.ca/files/cov/ap... bsky.app/profile/sean...

top five suggestions for programs to reduce or stop- full text avail in shared link page 9

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P.O.W.E.R. @policeoversight.ca · 06/11/2025

it is true that the police lie thetyee.ca/News/2025/11... bsky.app/profile/thet...

That’s been the strategy since 2006, when the agency recognized sending police to respond to overdose calls could deter people from calling for help during an emergency, VPD spokesperson Sgt. Steve Addison told The Tyee in an email.

However, Police Oversight with Evidence and Research, or POWER, has reported how some officers in the Downtown Eastside have gotten in the way of harm reduction workers administering naloxone or first aid.

POWER is a research project founded in 2024 by the Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users and the Western Aboriginal Harm Reduction Society.

Academic studies have also found knowledge of the Good Samaritan act varies widely among police officers, simple possession is still used by police as an enforcement tool, and police are confiscating drugs without arresting people.

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P.O.W.E.R. @policeoversight.ca · 03/09/2025

"Street sweeps:" The municipal government-enforced confiscation of personal belongings among unstably housed people who use drugs in Vancouver: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... @pivotlegalsociety.bsky.social @carenotcops.bsky.social @sfuscience.bsky.social @elsevierconnect.bsky.social

Original Research
“Street sweeps”: The municipal government-enforced confiscation of personal belongings among unstably housed people who use drugs in Vancouver, Canada

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P.O.W.E.R. @policeoversight.ca · 24/08/2025

join us for an evening of solidarity with our friends at Stop the Stack YYC. Sept 1 2025 | 5pm pst sign up: docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F... @hracollective.bsky.social

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P.O.W.E.R. @policeoversight.ca · 21/08/2025

look at this rot www.ctvnews.ca/vancouver/ar...

In April, police spokesperson Sgt. Steve Addison wrote to Deputy Chief Howard Chow and offered him a thread of posts he’d composed for Twitter, now the X platform, highlighting nine stranger attacks that had resulted in arrests.

There was a visually impaired senior who was punched in the stomach, a woman who was stabbed in the leg with a hypodermic needle.

“If you want it, we can help post it to your account,” Addison told Chow. “Good talking points, if nothing else.”

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P.O.W.E.R. @policeoversight.ca · 11/08/2025

August 31. 12pm-3pm at Oppenheimer Celebration of life for Elder Clint & 3pm-6pm block party 300 block hastings

poster for international overdose awareness day - 12-3 oppenheimer for celebration of life for Elder Clint & 3p-6p block party 300 block hastings - logos for power, WAHRS, VANDU & CPDDW

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P.O.W.E.R. @policeoversight.ca · 17/05/2025

involuntary treatment expansion was never about care, compassion or safety www.policeoversight.ca/p/16-organiz... @sudubc.bsky.social bsky.app/profile/filt... #drugsky

“This is another way to criminalize Indigenous people, we know the jails are already full of my Indigenous kin. This is the continuation of a colonial framework to keep Indigenous people below the poverty line, criminalized and oppressed.”
- Sparkling Fast Rising River Woman Elder Mona Woodward, Board of Directors, Surrey Union of Drug Users, Cree, Lakota-Sioux and Saulteaux from Kawacatoose First Nation

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P.O.W.E.R. @policeoversight.ca · 10/04/2025

destabilizing the supply with no plans to support the people who rely on it www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... bsky.app/profile/kimb...

Review
A scoping review of law enforcement drug seizures and overdose mortality in the United States

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P.O.W.E.R. @policeoversight.ca · 05/04/2025

www.policeoversight.ca/p/kelowna-or...

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P.O.W.E.R. @policeoversight.ca · 28/03/2025

Jackie has supported our fledgling crew by capturing some of our origins 🙏🏼 www.policeoversight.ca/p/truth-tell... #drugsky #vanpoli bsky.app/profile/jack...

truth-telling
early days of a police oversight project through a media fog
P.O.W.E.R
JUL 30, 2024

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P.O.W.E.R. @policeoversight.ca · 07/03/2025

BC NDP Kill Already Limited Safer Supply Program BC NDP know their witnessed safe supply policy will be fatal, but pursue it as they cave to right-wing rhetoric Read here: www.policeoversight.ca/p/bc-ndp-kil... @docs4saferdrugs.bsky.social @hecate1312.bsky.social

white block text on red and black background:

BC NDP Kill Already Limited Safer Supply Program

BC NDP know their witnessed safe supply policy will be fatal, but pursue it as they cave to right-wing rhetoric: Statement

Read here: https://www.policeoversight.ca/p/bc-ndp-kill-already-limited-safer

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