WHITE SUPREMACIST COPS

Toronto police use more force against Black people with little explanation, data shows

CBC/Radio-Canada - TODAY

An expansive Toronto police report released Wednesday confirms what many racialized people in the city have long said: Black, Indigenous and other diverse groups are disproportionately affected by use of force and strip searches by officers.


© Evan Mitsui/CBCNewly released internal data from Toronto police shows that officers used force more often against Black people than white people, even when factors like types of arrest, the presence of a weapon and local demographics are accounted for.

At a morning news conference, interim Toronto Police Chief James Ramer said the force needs to do better.

"As an organization, we have not done enough to ensure that every person in our city receives fair and unbiased policing," he said.

"For this, as chief of police and on behalf of the police, I am sorry and I apologize unreservedly," Ramer continued.

"The release of this data will cause pain for many. We must improve and we will do better."

The apology was not welcomed by Beverly Bain from the group No Pride in Policing, which describes itself as a coalition of queer and trans people formed in support of Black Lives Matter Toronto and focused on defunding police.

In a tense moment during the news conference, Bain slammed Ramer's response to the data.

"Chief Ramer, we do not accept your apology," she said, putting a point on an impassioned speech about how Black, Indigenous and other racialized groups have had to deal with police in the city.

Bain called Ramer's apology a "public relations stunt" that is "insulting" to Black and Indigenous people.

"This is not about saving our lives. What we have asked for you to do is stop. To stop brutalizing us. To stop killing us," she said.
Police used more force against Black people more often: data

The never-before-seen statistics released today were drawn from records of 949 use of force incidents and 7,114 strip searches over the course of 2020. The granular analysis, compiled by the force's Equity, Inclusion and Human Rights Unit alongside outside data experts in concert with a 12-member community panel, examines a wide range of questions.

Among its findings was that Black, Indigenous and Middle Eastern people were all overrepresented in the number of "enforcement actions'' taken against them relative to their total population in Toronto. For Black residents, it was by a factor of 2.2 times.

Similarly, Black, Latino, East/Southeast Asian and Middle Eastern people were overrepresented by factors of 1.6 times, 1.5 times, 1.2 times and 1.2 times, respectively, when it came to use of force.

Police also tended to use a higher degree of force against racialized groups compared to white people, especially when it came to officers drawing their firearms.

Black, South Asian and East/South Asian people were considerably more likely than white people -- 1.5 times, 1.6 times and two times, respectively -- to have an officer point a firearm at them during an interaction.

Ontario requires the public sector to collect race-based data as part of the Anti-Racism Act, and in 2019 the Toronto Police Services Board approved a data policy that would start with use of force and later extend to other police processes such as stops, searches, questioning and the laying of charges.

The use of force data was taken in part from reports that officers submit to the Ministry of the Solicitor General after interactions that necessitate medical attention for community members, as well as any time an officer draws or uses a firearm or Taser, or uses another weapon such as their baton or pepper spray.

The 949 use of force instances reported in 2020 account for 0.2 per cent of the 692,937 recorded police interactions with the public. Firearms were pointed in 371 of those encounters and used in four, two of which were fatal, according to police.
TPS concedes it has 'misused' race-based data before

The release of the data comes in the wake of several recent reports from human rights and police complaint watchdogs that called for major reforms within Toronto police.

In 2018, the Ontario Human Rights Commission (OHRC) concluded that Black people were "grossly overrepresented" in several types of violent police interactions, including use-of-force cases, shootings, deadly encounters and fatal shootings.

The OHRC reported that between 2013 and 2017 in Toronto, a Black person was nearly 20 times more likely than a white person to be shot and killed by police.

A follow-up analysis by the OHRC released in 2020 found that Black people are also more likely than others to be arrested and charged during interactions with Toronto police.

In its new report, the force acknowledged that it has "misused" race-based data in the past. That's an apparent reference to carding -- the practice of collecting identifying information during random street checks -- which the province moved to significantly restrict in 2017.

Any identifying information for both members of the public and officers was stripped from the data used in the use of force and strip search analysis, police said.
Reforms led to dramatic fall in strip searches

The research released Wednesday also looked at whether any racial groups were disproportionately represented in strip searches.

The results show Indigenous people were 1.3 times overrepresented relative to their presence in arrests. Meanwhile, Black and white people were 1.1 times overrepresented.

Toronto police overhauled their procedures for strip searches in October 2020, leading to a dramatic decline in how many were conducted from that point onward.

Before the changes, about 27 per cent of all arrests in that year included a strip search. That fell to four roughly five per cent afterward.

The policy modifications included that all strip searches be authorized by a supervisor and audited by upper-level management.

The reforms helped to end overrepresentation of Indigenous people in strip searches in 2021, the analysis concluded. But racial discrepancies remained for Black and white residents who were arrested.

The changes were introduced after a 2019 report from the Office of the Independent Police Review Director found that unnecessary and illegal strip searches had become commonplace practice among police forces in Ontario.

The report released this morning also includes 38 actions the force says will help to address racial discrepancies in use of force incidents and strip searches. During a briefing for the media on Tuesday, a police official said a public-facing online dashboard will keep track of the force's progress in implementing the actions in coming months and years.

Black people greatly over-represented in Toronto enforcement population, use of force and strip search data

 

Toronto police apologize for disproportionate use of force against racialized communities | FULL

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Global News

Toronto Police Interim Chief James Ramer apologized on Wednesday to the city’s racialized residents after the release of Toronto police statistics that showed racialized groups were disproportionately affected by enforcement actions and use of force by police officers.

New statistics released by Toronto police show Black people faced a disproportionate amount of police enforcement and use of force in 2020 in comparison to their representation in the overall population, and were more likely to have an officer point a gun at them than white people in the same situation, according to police data.

Middle Eastern people were also overrepresented when it came to enforcement action and use of force, while other groups — such as Latino and East and Southeast Asian residents — experienced less enforcement in comparison to their representation in the overall population but saw more use of force when they did interact with police.

Indigenous people faced more enforcement, but proportionately slightly less use of force in those interactions, according to the same data.

Police statistics show white people faced proportionately less enforcement and less use of force in comparison to their representation in the overall population.