P.O.W.E.R. DISPATCH #11
Update on community-based reporting at P.O.W.E.R.
Click for previous dispatches
P.O.W.E.R. is moving from bimonthly to trimonthly ‘dispatches’ while working on ways to provide more detailed articles with the community newsletter. Since launching in July 2024, P.O.W.E.R. has established multiple ways of reporting back. This includes separate pages for peer-reviewed publications, position statements, community reports, and printable bad cop lists.
Dispatch #11 Themes
1. More cops everywhere
According to the Vancouver Police Department, there were as many as 1,300 officers from several police forces deployed on each FIFA game day. Business in Vancouver reported that some police officers were provided catered meals on shift at their temporary FIFA headquarters in Chinatown Plaza.
Officer Don Chapman — given the VPD title “deputy gold commander” during FIFA — claimed in North Shore News that “Everything was safe, secure, and inviting” during the event period, but many residents endured routine harassment, harm and violence. P.O.W.E.R. reports and outreach activities reflect this reality, and large groups of officers continued to police the Downtown Eastside and surrounding area (as noted in Dispatch #4).
Despite the World Cup ending on July 19, millions more dollars will be spent to police the pedestrian-only stretch of Granville Street for another seven weeks.
2. Shakedowns and jack ups
VPD continue to have a heightened presence at the intersection of Main and Hastings streets (as reported in Dispatch #9). Police shakedowns, coercive displacement, and physical violence remain commonplace.
3. Smashed pipes
P.O.W.E.R. has witnessed and received multiple reports of VPD officers smashing pipes when interacting with residents of the DTES. At the same time, Crackdown has reported that harm reduction and health services are dealing with a reduction and shortage of bubble pipes.
Reduced access to new pipes means that drug users are exposed to injury (incl. cuts and burns from using broken or lower quality supplies), as well as disease and illness. Risks related to cross-contamination from sharing pipes is as high as ever, particularly for stimulant users who do not use opioids.
This multi-pronged attack on sterile harm reduction supplies by state bodies, including police, public health and governmental organizations is part of the broader societal trend of prioritizing enforcement and involuntary abstinence at the expense of successful harm reduction interventions.
With the increased concentration of drugs happening alongside an affordability crisis, it is also common practice for people to store the last of their personal drug supply in their gear.
Drug seizures cause harm and generate desperation. Meanwhile overdoses continue at extremely high rates.
The BC Centre for Disease Control graph below shows paramedic-attended overdose rates per 100,000 people in the Vancouver Coastal Health region since 2015 (not yet updated to include June 2026):
Community activity
Pop-up POPS
Members hosted four P.O.W.E.R. overdose prevention sites (POPS) with the support of community volunteers. POPS operated congruent with local FIFA evening games, alongside outreach on all seven game days.
P.O.W.E.R. connected with at least 643 people between POPS and outreach, and 56 people used while supervised throughout the seven games. The group checked on people, responded to six crisis and/or overdose events; and provided hydration supplies, food, harm reduction gear, clothing, and a place to hang out in the midst of constant criminalization for a few hours. No one overdosed while using at the site. (P.O.W.E.R. expresses gratitude to those who supported this effort!)
P.O.W.E.R. continued with regular copwatch shifts. Some significant events documented from June 12 to July 15 are shown in a map below:
And outside Science World…Qatari police officers joined RCMP and VPD officers to block off the street:
Book launch: Play Naked
P.O.W.E.R. members Jenn and Samona shared some insights from P.O.W.E.R.’s early FIFA findings to support the book launch for Play Naked: Puta Economics Against Olympic Dispossession by Amanda De Lisio. In addition to celebrating the efforts that went into the project, the event included discussions about lessons learned for resisting dispossession during FIFA and future mega-events.
P.O.W.E.R. in media
Reuters: In World Cup shadow, Vancouver’s vulnerable communities fear and resist street sweeps
Reuters video: FIFA policing in the downtown eastside
The Guardian: Vancouver’s World Cup comes with supercharged police campaign
The Tyee: How has the world cup affected the Downtown Eastside?
Crackdown: We ain’t dead yet
New research feat. P.O.W.E.R. members
International Journal of Drug Policy: Regulation on the rocks: Community-directed appraisal on the projected harms of reform to alcohol pricing in the Downtown Eastside of Vancouver