The chair of the Toronto Police Services Board says the controversial practice of ‘carding’ is putting the city at risk of becoming a “surveillance society.”
In an op-ed piece published in The Toronto Star Friday, Alok Mukherjee spoke out about the police service’s carding policy and described a few recent discussions he had with Toronto residents that he said has left him “profoundly disturbed.”
“I believe the Toronto police services board must now declare unequivocally that information generated from informal contacts with members of the public, which are not related to any criminal investigation or likelihood of a criminal investigation, must not be recorded in any police database,” he wrote.
"I understand that such information will be recorded in the memo book of the officer who made the contact, but it should remain there."
Mukherjee said that while he supports “intelligence-based policing,” he agrees with Toronto Police Chief Mark Saunders that “random” stops must not be part of the practice.
“The notion that information about innocent citizens not engaged in or suspected of any wrongdoing is ending up and residing in police databases forever to be used in ways that could jeopardize their safety and future is deeply offensive,” he adds.
“There is no justification for this practice to continue.”
Speaking with CP24 Friday, Mukherjee said a recent encounter with a middle aged teacher on a streetcar got him thinking about the policy's impact.
"He told me that way back in the 1970s, when he was a young man, he had been stopped several times and he still remembers that and he was not happy, he used the word disgusted, to see that we had not dealt with that practice, that old practice, yet," Mukherjee said.
"It got me to thinking that you know we’ve been trying to deal with it. Let’s get on with. Let’s do it. Let’s make it clear to the public that the board does not stand for the carding of innocent people."
Mukherjee’s opinion piece comes just days after a number of community leaders called for an end to the practice, which they say is undoubtedly discriminatory.
The practice was suspended in January and earlier this week, Toronto police spokesperson Mark Pugash said the moratorium on carding will continue until Saunders “decides it’s appropriate" for carding to resume.
