Ontario’s Community Safety and Correctional Services Minister Yasir Naqvi announced this past week that “We as a government stand opposed, Speaker, to any arbitrary, random stops by the police simply to collect information when there are no grounds or reason to do so,” in response to government’s consultation regarding the so-called “carding” process that became so highly-criticized this past year.
As well as Police Services Act regulations around the collection, use and storage of data, Minister Naqvi promised “stronger guidelines for police who conduct street checks as part of an investigation or because of suspicious activity”, and “rules guaranteeing that charter rights are protected for anyone who is checked.”
It remains to be seen what exactly all of this will look like and mean to Ontario police services, but at face value it is not at all in conflict with statements made by Ontario’s police leaders, including Chief Mark Saunders of the Toronto Police Service. Most or all police services were or still are conducting such checks and their processes only vary slightly from service to service. I truly believe that all of them were designed with the honest intent of recording street-checks of suspicious behaviour in suspicious circumstances and not based on race or colour, except when those factors were specifically relevant to a reported crime or wanted person. However, data gathered on the issue and some public statements made would certainly suggest that people of colour were more often checked by police than white citizens in some communities. One such complainant – Toronto journalist Desmond Cole, claims that he was stopped dozens of times in very non-suspicious circumstances. Assuming his statements to be true, such checks by police are clearly wrong and not in keeping with any police street-check policy that I am aware of.
No police chief will accept officers arbitrarily checking non-white citizens and gathering information from them for no other reason than walking down the street. Thankfully, “Walking while black” has never been an offence under any form of legislation – ever.
The “intent” of the street-check process was never meant to be unconstitutional, discriminatory or to offend the rights of community members, however the “application” of the practice by some officers may well have resulted in all of the above, thereby creating fragile relationships between some community members and their police services. It was designed for police to have a mechanism to record information regarding suspicious situations, with the hope that someday that information would link with other information gathered and help solve crimes.
While discussing the role of police in Toronto recently, Ray Kelly, the former Commissioner of the New York Police Department said, “Stopping those engaging in suspicious activity is what they get paid for.” I couldn’t agree more.
It is the responsibility of police officers to check out suspicious behavior. Walking down the street for the most part does not fit that definition. But lurking in the shadows of an alley in the dead of night, amid businesses that are plagued by burglaries certainly does – regardless of colour. Does the public expect their police to ignore such things? Do they want police to NOT conduct further investigations out of fear that the suspicious person happens to be a man of colour and might complain of biased policing? I think not. I fear that the ongoing hype has made some officers reluctant to even casually chat to people they meet in public or to pull up to a group kids on a street corner to simply say hello – all in an effort help build police-community relationships.
When the police don’t act in a way that is consistent with the law or established policy; violate the rights of the people they are sworn to serve; or turn a blind eye to situations that they clearly should thoroughly investigate – the public has the right to be concerned and to complain through due process. Police leaders must then cause that complaint to be properly investigated and reported on in a transparent manner. If the officer erred, then he or she needs to be appropriately and fairly dealt with. That’s the way the system should work in Canada and most often does.
However the overwhelming majority of dedicated, law-abiding and professional officers out there deserve the proper legislative tools to do what they so carefully and bravely do and to be supported when they use them properly. The small minority that doesn’t follow the rules must be dealt with through proper process. Let’s not throw the baby out with the bath water and tie the hands of the police that do try to do what is right because of the few that do not apply their authority in an acceptable way. Government needs to get this legislation right – for the betterment of all.
Chris Lewis served as Commissioner of the Ontario Provincial Police from 2010 until he retired in 2014. He can be seen regularly on CTV and CP24 giving his opinion as a public safety analyst.
