EPS will continue street checks: Chief
Edmonton police say they will keep conducting street checks after an independent report found no evidence the force’s use of the practice amounts to racial profiling.
But the 306-page report on carding said there is confusion about street checks, and calls for more transparency from law enforcement.
Simon Fraser University’s Curt Griffiths said in the police commission-funded study on carding it’s “not possible” to conclude officers racially discriminate against people who are stopped by police, asked for identification and questioned despite not being suspected of a crime.
The finding diverges from conclusions reached one year ago by local Black Lives Matter activists based on data they said showed black and Indigenous Edmontonians are disproportionately carded by police.
Griffiths, a criminology professor, said he couldn’t make that claim based on his own review of internal carding reports.
The problem, he said, is data which he characterized as “contaminated” with each officer’s subjective assessments as well as a half-dozen other types of police calls that were not in his opinion street checks.
The report found just 16.5 per cent of the 27,125 reports filed by Edmonton officers in 2017 were in compliance with EPS street check guidelines.
Griffiths determined just over 4,400 of those reports were actual checks. The remainder included reports on 911 calls, traffic stops, loitering calls, and transit fare stops that were classified as street checks. (EPS officials said the service has a broader definition to determine if profiling is happening in other types of police interactions.)
He also noted officers do not ask a person’s race during a street check and are responsible for recording that subjective decision after the fact.
“One of the huge problems in the data set is the same people were identified over different street check reports as being black, Asian, South Asian, Métis or Hispanic,” he said.
“One of the most important variables you’d want to look at statistically is totally contaminated.
“When somebody (makes a freedom of information request for) street check data from a police service, they’re getting everything,” Griffiths said.
“They’re getting contaminated data.”
“It’s not possible (based on the statistics) to show that Edmonton police are engaged in racial profiling (in street checks),” he added.
Edmonton police Chief Rod Knecht, who reviewed the draft report Friday, said it backed up the service’s position on carding and found no evidence that officers were racially biased.
“They recommended that street checks remain in place, and cited several issues that can arise if street checks were to stop.”
But despite Griffiths conclusion about the statistics, Knecht said police must address the perception by some communities that street checks target people of certain ethnicities.
“Perceptions are as important as reality,” he said, recommending better training for officers, an overhauled community policing plan and more public reporting of carding numbers.
“This involves listening to the community (and) addressing those perceptions.”
Griffiths also echoed comments made by Knecht last week, who said close scrutiny of carding has made officers nervous about proactive policing — a phenomena characterized by other researchers as a “f--k it, drive on” mentality among officers.
Bashir Mohamed, an activist with Black Lives Matter Edmonton, said his reaction to the report was mixed.
He stood by conclusions Black Lives Matter reached last year along with University of Alberta professor Michelle Maroto and believes street checks should end.
“It gets the community side right, the feelings of the community,” he said.
“When it comes to police, I’m disappointed they didn’t challenge them and ask for proof (of how street checks solve crimes).”
Researchers consulted with 18 community organizations, including Bent Arrow Traditional Healing Society, Native Counselling Services of Alberta, Somali Canadian Women and Children’s Association and the Africa Centre.
It’s not possible (based on the statistics) to show that Edmonton police are engaged in racial profiling (in street checks).