Councillor defends police carding despite ongoing race concerns
A homicide tied to the scene of a crime in Vancouver through a simple street check is one of the anecdotes on police street checks that speaks volumes for Coun. Moe Banga.
Advocates from Black Lives Matter and local Indigenous groups have been pushing for proof that a
This is a very valid tool for police. Abandoning this would just be a big loss to the community.
contentious tool of policing actually does more good than harm. They say carding hurts police relationships with minority communities, who feel targeted when repeatedly stopped and asked for information when they ’ve done nothing wrong.
But Banga said he’s seen the benefits first hand and he’s satisfied.
“This is a very valid tool for police. Abandoning this would just be a big loss to the community,” said Banga, city councillor for Ward 12 who worked as a police officer for 24 years.
On Thursday, Banga appeared on Edmonton Talk Back, a Postmedia interview show hosted through Facebook Live. He took questions on Edmonton’s anti-racism initiative, which he co-sponsors, his personal experience with racism and on police carding.
“Let’s say you’re responding to a noise complaint — hollering and hooting in the middle of the park. Even if I don’t have grounds to arrest people, I’m going to get your name and address, why are you here, ask the simple questions,” he said, explaining how carding helps. If later, it’s discovered there was a sexual assault in that park, that information in the police database becomes a tool.
Police carding or street checks is an issue that gained attention in recent years when the local chapter of Black Lives Matter demonstrated that Edmonton police unequally check people from minority communities. According to Edmonton police statistics analyzed by Black Lives Matter, black people are three to five times more likely to be stopped by police than white people. Indigenous people are six to 10 times more likely than the general population, and Indigenous women are up to 10 times more likely than white women to have their information collected and filed in a police database.
They say that damages the police relationship with minority communities. The figures are reported as a range because Black Lives Matters had to make assumptions around population growth while waiting for the next census information, said Bashir Mohamed, cochairman of the policing file for the group.