Social Policy in Ontario

Ontario’s new rules on carding are a welcome reform

Posted on October 30, 2015 in Equality Policy Context

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TheStar.com – Opinion/Editorials – Ontario’s impressive new regulations on police carding effectively ban random and arbitrary stops while also preserving officers’ ability to fight crime.
Oct 29 2015.   Editorial

It doesn’t mean an end to police bias — a lot more work remains on that front. But Ontario’s draft regulations to fix “carding” go a considerable way toward protecting civil rights, especially for visible minorities. And they do so without seriously impeding officers’ ability to fight crime. It’s a sound balance.

Indeed, the proposed changes should strengthen Ontario’s police services by boosting public trust and inspiring fresh confidence that those who serve and protect are carrying out their task in an unprejudiced manner. There’s no doubt public faith in police fairness has been severely undercut by the discredited practice of carding, or street checks.

In general, these involve having officers stop people connected to no apparent crime in order to ask a series of intrusive questions. When done in the past, individuals were seldom told they had the right to walk away. And their answers would be entered into a police database and kept for an indefinite period.

That anyone would be subject to such questioning raises civil liberty concerns. But even more troubling is a wealth of anecdotal and statistical evidence showing that some people were targeted more than others.
A series of Star investigations found that individuals with black or brown skin were being stopped and carded at disproportionately high rates. That worrisome pattern is consistent with racial profiling.

Over the course of this year clamour from such obvious injustice swelled to a point where it could no longer be ignored. Voices from virtually every level of society demanded an end to the biased and hurtful practice that was carding.

Queen’s Park may have taken longer than necessary, but the province arrived at the right solution by releasing a series of proposed changes this week that effectively ban the way street checks were done in the past.
The draft regulation would “expressly prohibit the random and arbitrary collection of identifying information by police,” and it forbids collection based on race.

Police still have the right to ask people for information. But firm boundaries have been set to limit what they can do, and detail what they can’t.

For a start, an officer must have a valid public safety or crime prevention purpose to stop someone and ask questions. This could be done to gather information on “individuals known or reasonably suspected to be engaged in illegal activities” or to inquire into suspicious activity.

Next, the officer would need to inform the person who had been stopped of his or her right to walk away, and why the information was being collected. Participation would be voluntary. And each person would be given the equivalent of a written receipt outlining the date, time and reason for the collection; the officer’s name and badge number; steps in finding out what had been recorded; and information on how to file a complaint.
Any officer who fails to comply with the new regulation would be subject to discipline under the Police Services Act.

It’s reasonable to expect that all this would make rogue cops think twice before acting in a racist or bullying manner. To further limit such conduct, regulatory changes would be backed up by new training requirements and data monitoring designed to enhance police accountability.

There are circumstances in which the new rules don’t apply, such as when an officer is undercover; if someone is under arrest or detained; if police are executing a warrant; or in casual interactions where an officer has no intention of documenting the information someone may share. And people are still required to surrender their information in circumstances such as a traffic stop.

These are sensible exceptions. The draft regulations are now subject to a period of public consultation and it’s important to receive input from individuals, community groups and police forces with ideas to improve the rules. Once that’s done, the regulations are to take effect next July.

It has been a long and difficult journey to get to this point, especially for communities most hurt by the corrosive practice of carding. But relief is finally in sight.

< http://www.thestar.com/opinion/editorials/2015/10/29/ontarios-new-rules-on-carding-are-a-welcome-reform-editorial.html >

Tags: crime prevention, ideology, multiculturalism, rights, standard of living

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