TPS board votes to bring back 2014 policy on carding

Toronto police officers may soon be able to resume the practice of carding but there will be stricter guidelines on how it can be carried out.

The Toronto Police Services board voted unanimously in favour of an amended motion today that reinstates a 2014 draft policy on carding, which was considered to be much stronger than the so-called compromise policy adopted by the board in April.

Mayor John Tory's motion previously called for the board to support a permanent cancellation of carding, which he defined as "the random stopping of citizens not engaged in or suspected of criminal activity for the purposes of gathering information,” however Tory amended the motion during Thursday’s meeting to instead bring back the policy that was approved by the board in April, 2014 but never actually put into practice by then-police chief Bill Blair.

That policy, which Blair had claimed presented legal issues, required that police issue receipts to those that they card and inform members of the public that they are under no legal obligation to stop and talk.

The motion approved by the TPS board today also asks police chief Mark Saunders to report back with information about the legal and practical implications of purging historical information collected from carding.

It is not immediately clear when the new policy will be put into place. Carding has been under a moratorium since January.

“I am not concerned about quick; I am concerned about doing it right. I want to work with the board and with the ministry and anyone else that is interested,” Police Chief Mark Saunders told reporters following Thursday’s board meeting. “Good governance involves listening to the will of the people and that is what we have done here. The board has listened to people and their concerns and they have come out with their conclusion. Now as a police agency we have to figure out what the best fit is so we can still keep the community safe and give people the dignity and respect that they have asked for.”

Saunders has previously defended carding as a “valuable tool” in targeting street gangs, but on Thursday the police chief insisted that he has “never said” that he supports the practice and has only suggested “that if things are done properly it will enhance community safety.”

As for the direction the board has opted to take on carding, Saunders remained neutral.

“I have made it very clear that implementing a procedure won’t make everything go away,” he said. “We have a lot of work to do to build a trust that I think is necessary for us to keep our city number one. Is this a movement in the right direction? That is yet to be decided on.”

Tory had called for permanent cancellation of carding

Tory’s change in position came nearly two weeks after he held an impromptu Sunday afternoon press conference to announce that he would seek the end of carding.

At the time, Tory admitted that “there is no real way to fix a practice that has come to be regarded as illegitimate, disrespectful and hurtful” and said a “fresh start” was needed.

“I believe today will represent a permanent end of carding if you look at the definition of carding both discussed by all the deputants today and found in my memo, which is the arbitrary stopping of people for reasons unrelated to any criminal investigation and the recording of information and storage of information from those people,” Tory told reporters on Thursday afternoon, dismissing a suggestion that he softened his initial position. “I think it is prudent to have something that stops carding on an interim basis and addresses many of the concerns of the community and then we will see what the province comes forward with.”

In April, the Toronto Police Service Board introduced a new carding policy that prohibited officers from considering “race, place of origin, age, colour, ethnic origin, gender identity or gender expression” when deciding whether to stop someone for questioning and banned any carding quotas from being put in place by management.

Those changes will now be replaced with the 2014 draft policy, which carding opponents have previously said included stronger safeguards against biased policing.

The policy will be used on an interim basis and could still be amended once the province announces expected mandatory guidelines on carding in the fall.

“We now have an interim policy for how police officers can interact with the community. When they are in the midst of a true crime investigation the law tells them what to do but when it is an arbitrary interaction we need to tell them what to do,” Don Valley East councillor and TPS board member Shelley Carroll told reporters. “We are sorry we couldn’t implement this with Bill Blair but we would certainly ask that it be implemented now as soon as possible so every young person in this city knows what their rights are and knows what to expect when they are in an interaction with one of our officers.”

Former mayor says community will be watching

Tory’s announcement that he would seek an end to carding earlier this month came just a few days after a number of community leaders held a press conference to decry the practice as a violation of human rights.

One those leaders, former mayor Barbara Hall, told CP24 on Thursday that she views the reinstatement of the 2014 policy as a partial victory.

“I think it is important that we return to the position of 2014 but even then there was an acknowledgement that that was part of a process of figuring out exactly what is happening in terms of carding, racial profiling and in terms of the police interaction with people in the community,” Hall said. “People will be watching and making sure that this moves forward in a positive way, so the negative impact of the past is eliminated totally.”

Speaking with CP24 ahead of Thursday’s meeting, journalist and anti-carding activist Desmond Cole said he was pleased that the board was finally taking steps to eliminate carding altogether but he indicated that Tory’s original motion didn’t go far enough.

“We need to define the framework for when police are allowed to stop somebody and take their identification. The policy that John Tory has put forward does not define it. Here is how I would define it. You have the right as police to stop somebody in three circumstances: when you see them committing a crime, when you believe they are about to commit a crime or when they are part of an investigation that you are conducting as the police,” Cole said. “Other those three reasons, there is no reason for a police officer in Toronto to stop someone and demand that they identify themselves.”

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