Carding (police policy)

Carding, which is officially known as the Community Contacts Policy,^[1] is an intelligence gathering policy of the Toronto Police Service involving the stopping, questioning, and documenting of individuals when no particular offence is being investigated.^[2] The information collected is kept on record in the Field Information Report (FIR) database for an unspecified period.^[2] The Peel Regional Police employ a similar practice, known as a “street check” and that any personal information gathered from an individual in a street check can be entered into a database that Peel police maintains.^[3]

In summer of 2014, the Service discontinued the use of physical hard copy cards (TPS 306 Form), officers were directed to enter the information captured during community engagements into their memobook as Community Safety Notes (CSN), which may be retained for a maximum of seven years.^[4]

Scope

The PACER report indicates that from 2009 to 2011, there were 1,104,561 persons entered into the Field Information Report (FIR) database.^[5] In 2009 the Vancouver Police Department made 11,507 entries for street checks into the BC PRIME database.^[6] The Ottawa Police Service entered 45,802 people into the Ottawa Records Management System (RMS) database from 23,402 street checks in the years 2011 to 2014^[7] In 2012, Andrew Tysowski discovered that while innocent of any crime, the Ottawa Police Service had collected and stored some of his personal information for six years.^[8] The Hamilton Police Service published the annual number of street checks its ACTION team completed in its 2013 year-end report to the service's oversight board: 5,423 Street Checks in 2011, 4,803 in 2012 and 3,684 in 2013,^[9] records of these activities were recorded in the service's NICHE database.^[10] Since 2006, Niagara Regional Police officers have submitted 157,315 street checks.^[11] From 2009 to 2014, the Peel Regional Police conducted 159,303 street checks, recorded on PRP17 cards, and a freedom-of-information request by a Peel Region resident revealed that black people were three times more likely to be stopped than whites.^[12] In 2014, the London Police Service performed 8,400 street checks and entered 14,000 people, vehicles and properties into their database, of those identified, 71% were white, 7.7% were black and 5.3% were of First Nation heritage.^[13] In 2010, the Calgary Police Service carded 47,000 people, while in 2015 around 27,000 people having been carded.^[14]

Controversy

Opposition to carding is widespread, with testimony and a news organization investigation indicating that when practised in Toronto it primarily targets black persons.^[15] The Law Union of Ontario has submitted that in its current form, the practice of carding implements a systematic violation of people’s Charter rights, human rights, and privacy rights.^[16] The Office of the Ontario Ombudsman believes the practice of carding is illegal.^[17]

On October 23, 2015, Ruth Goba, Interim Chief Commissioner of the Ontario Human Commission Rights Commission, stated that when Hamilton Police Chief De Caire requires police officers to be "stopping, talking and investigating young black males", the Hamilton Police Service is implementing a textbook description of racial profiling.^[18] On April 26, 2016, Hamilton Councillor Matthew Green, one of the few public officials in Hamilton to take a public stance opposing police carding, was carded by the Hamilton Police Service.^[19] After a fact finding mission in October 2016, the United Nations’ Working Group of Experts on People of African Descent expressed concerns that racial profiling is endemic to carding strategies and practices used by Canadian law enforcement.^[20]

Oversight

There is an ongoing debate around what ability police boards have to influence carding operations:^[21]

• The Hamilton Police Services Board moved to suspend the practice of carding while the province reviews, but it was stopped by the police service's lawyer. Instead the board moved to request an information report on best practices as it pertains to policy around Community Street Checks.^[22] Shortly thereafter, Chief Glenn De Caire refused to implement an interim policy governing carding that was adopted from the Toronto Police Services Board.
• The Peel Police Services Board passed a recommendation that the chief stop carding,^[23] but the Chief Jennifer Evans said she will not follow their recommendation.

Regulation

On 16 June 2015, Ontario announced that it will develop a new regulation to regulate police street checks. The Ministry of Community Safety and Correctional Services have held a series of five workshop-style public meetings across the province:^[24]

• August 21, 2015 – Ottawa
• August 25, 2015 – Brampton
• August 27, 2015 – Thunder Bay
• August 31, 2015 – London
• September 1, 2015 – Toronto

22 October 2015, during debate in the Legislative Assembly of Ontario, Yasir Naqvi, minister of community safety and correctional services, announced that regulation banning random street checks will be in place by the end of the fall, and will become part of the Police Services Act of Ontario, and will include:^[25]

• Stronger guidelines for police who conduct street checks as part of an investigation or because of suspicious activity.
• Rules guaranteeing that charter rights are protected for anyone who is checked.
• Clear rules on how police can collect carding data, use the data, as well as the length of time the data can be stored.

28 October 2015, the Ministry of Community Safety and Correctional Services, posted two draft regulations for public input on the random and arbitrary collection of identifying information by police.^[26]

30 November 2015, a coalition of community organizations and individuals issued a joint response to the draft Regulation, articulating a rights-based framework for policing aimed at prohibiting Community Contacts that are arbitrary and discriminatory, negatively affecting African Canadian, Aboriginal and other racialized and marginalized people.^[27]

8 December 2015, the Ontario Association of Chief of Police’s Board of Directors unanimously passed a submission on Proposed Regulations to the Police Services Act: “Collection of Identifying Information in Certain Circumstances – Prohibition and Duties” and Proposed Amendments to the Schedule to O.Reg. 268/10 (Code of Conduct).^[28]

21 March 2016, the Ministry of Community Safety and Correctional Services, filed Ontario Regulation 58/16: Collection of Idebtifying Information in Certain Circumstances – Prohibition and Duties,^[29] which sets out rules for carding. The Government of Onario will also launch a multi-year academic study on the impact of carding.^[30]

24 March 2016, the African Canadian Legal Clinic, issued a press release stating that the new regulation "fails to fully and finally provide adequate protection for the fundamental rights and freedoms of African Canadians".^[31]

12 April 2016, the Board of Directors of the Toronto Police Association, issued a memo to its membership stating that the new regulation is "counterproductive to proactive community engagement and crime prevention".^[32]

Responses

In 2015, Christien Levien, a law school graduate, created Legalswipe, an app that draws from the Canadian Civil Liberties Association’s “know your rights” handbook, and guides people through police encounters.^[33]

Variants

In 2016, the Office of the Police Complaint Commissioner, British Columbia, raised concerns that the Vancouver Police Department's Restaurant Watch program, (also known as Bar Watch or the Inadmissible Patron Program) is a new form of street check or carding.^[34]

See also

• Stop and Frisk
• Stop and search, a UK equivalent.
• Stop-and-frisk in New York City

External links

• Canadian Civil Liberties Association’s “know your rights” handbook
• Legalswipe

References