‘Carding’ by police drops 30 per cent in one year

Edmonton police officers are carrying out fewer “carding” stops, a trend police Chief Rod Knecht attributes in part to ongoing controversy around the practice.

Officers filed 15,909 street check reports in 2017, documenting cases where they stop and request information from someone who is not suspected of a crime.

Last year’s total was down 30 per cent since 2016 and nearly 40 per cent from a high of 27,322 street check reports in 2012.

“I think we’re doing it better as a consequence of the feedback we got from the community,” Knecht said. “I think we’re changing the way we street check a little bit.

“The other thing is we have some officers who just aren’t doing street checks anymore,” he added. “They’ve sort of stepped back and said, ‘I don’t want to be investigated, I don’t want to be hassled, I’m going to get in trouble, so I’m just not going to do these street checks anymore’ ... we don’t want that.”

Activists say street checks are a form of arbitrary detention and should be banned. Data obtained last year by Black Lives Matter Edmonton showed people stopped and carded were disproportionately black and Indigenous, which police attribute to the concentration of those groups in areas with beat patrols.

The group also expressed concern about how police use and share information collected in street checks.

Edmonton police have twice refined their carding policies after consulting with black and Indigenous Edmontonians on a police advisory committee, Knecht said.

“Those groups came forward, and we’ve actually changed our policy already ... specific to what they said they found was problematic or an issue for them,” he said.

“We came to total and complete resolution where everybody was totally happy with what we did.”

The most recent change came in September, Supt. Chad Tawfik said in an email.

Officers are trained in bias awareness and on when they can detain someone, he said. They are also responsible for explaining to people they street check that they have the right to leave and refuse to answer questions.

Bashir Mohamed with Black Lives Matter said it’s good police are thinking twice about street checking people, but said 15,000 instances is still a lot.

“You should always be cautious if you’re going to do that to someone, because then that person effectively becomes known to police,” he said.

“I’m not against police talking to someone in the community,” he added. “If a police officer is doing their beat and wants to get to know the area, just have conversations. You can be friends with someone without asking for their ID.”

Street check polices are under review by both the Alberta government and the Edmonton Police Commission, which got a first look at the report it commissioned on Thursday. Chairman Tim O’Brien said the report will be released to the public by the end of the month.