Pre-FIFA barrage of policing public space

How order maintenance policing can generate (publicly funded) disorder

P.O.W.E.R

May 18, 2026

In this newsletter, P.O.W.E.R. shares a few clips, images and documents. These are reflective of the routine policing of public space in the Downtown Eastside, but they are not representative of—the common—displays of severe violence by Vancouver Police Department officers. The documentation in this newsletter was collected from February 2026 until April 2026, leading up to the FIFA 2026 world cup “event period” in the city, which formally began on 13 May 2026.

Seizure and destruction of drug use equipment
At the corner of Georgia Street and Gore Avenue, two Vancouver Police officers force someone who is sedated on the sidewalk to stand up. One of the police officers sees a glass pipe on the ground. The officer then immediately kicks it to the street before smashing it with his boot.

The seizure of drug use equipment—distributed primarily through public health programs and by healthcare workers—is a persistent issue across time in Vancouver and other regions of BC. Between Nov. 2022 until Jan. 2023, for example, 31 per cent of people who use drugs and interacted with police reported having their equipment confiscated in BC. This is despite the expansive evidence base showing that access to sterile drug use equipment lowers spread of disease and reduces likelihood of other medical conditions, such as endocarditis. Some people may store their limited personal supply in a pipe or syringe, meaning confiscation can exacerbate the need to replace it among people who rely on a criminalized substance.

$1,000 bylaw ticket
An April 2026 bylaw ticket issued by a VPD officer employing the street vending bylaw with a fine of $1,000. (P.O.W.E.R. has obscured the specific day to reduce risk of police officer retaliation against this senior resident).

After the pre-Olympic winter games bylaw ticketing blitz that occurred in 2008-2009, the City of Vancouver was pressured by community advocacy into a) cancelling hundreds of tickets; and b) allocating resources to develop a sanctioned DTES market. The DTES market has since been relocated several times, and is now a fraction of its previous size. City documents obtained by Pivot Legal demonstrate that between 2008 and 2012 bylaw tickets were nearly exclusively issued—95% of the time—in the Downtown Eastside (and not in the city’s other areas).

$250 for smoking a cigarette on East Hastings Street
In front of Union Gospel Mission—home to a few of the neighbourhoods’ dwindling number of publicly accessible benches—police officers issue two bylaw tickets to people “smoking too close to a building,” according to an officer in the video. In a longer version of the video reviewed by P.O.W.E.R., both people are alleged by the officers to be smoking cigarettes. P.O.W.E.R. obtained one of the two tickets—the fine totalled $250.

Weaponization of discretion
On another day in the Downtown Eastside, the same VPD officer #3499 (Constable Nikolay Lavrenenko), threatens someone with a ticket for smoking outside after the person questions why he was detained and searched by the officer.

“Less lethal”
A number of P.O.W.E.R. observational field notes and community submissions captured the discharging and/or threats of “less lethal” firearms by VPD officers during this period. P.O.W.E.R. is concerned that there may be a recent rise in VPD officers shooting people with “less lethal” weapons.

P.O.W.E.R. has limited the release of video at this time to balance presenting the realities of VPD officer practices while reducing the replication of shock value information sharing and trauma voyeurism, particularly as P.O.W.E.R. continues to investigate this issue. If you do have documentation or have witnessed recent use of less lethal firearms by VPD, please contact P.O.W.E.R. at dtespower@gmail.com.