In Mukherjee’s eyes, ‘nobody wants to go to war with the chief’

Police board chair Alok Mukherjee says he felt forced to sign off on the controversial compromise on “carding” — though it’s missing four key elements community advocates demand.

After years of insisting that police must inform citizens they do not have to stay and engage in the informal police contacts, which end in the collecting and storage of personal information in police data banks, the board is poised on Thursday to drop that requirement.

It was either that or continue the war with Chief Bill Blair, Mukherjee said in an interview Monday.

“Nobody wants to go to war with the chief,” he said.

Since the police services board last year approved a new policy around carding — including a requirement that police give citizens a receipt documenting the reason for the stop — the new procedures have been held up at the chief’s office.

Blair refused to implement them, claiming, among other things, they violated the laws that govern police and impinge on the right of police to exercise discretion in their interactions with the public, Mukherjee said.

The board wanted the chief to limit carding to situations where there is a clear public safety reason. Officers were to tell citizens of their right to not engage in such situations. And provide a receipt to citizens who are carded. And police were to get rid of the mounds of information they’ve collected over the years.

But the compromise, brokered by a retired judge, leaves them untouched, prompting critics to charge that Mukherjee has sold out.

After a year of back-and-forth, Blair’s position has not moved, Mukherjee said. Blair feels that to define what is a “public safety reason” for carding is to limit the police. The board’s vote has no effect if the chief does not interpret the vote by writing operational commands that the rank and file must follow.

Meanwhile, community pressure has mounted as complaints pointed to statistics that showed black and brown citizens were four times more likely to be carded than whites. “We were getting nowhere,” said Mukherjee. “There was a standoff. We were at an impasse.”

Mukherjee said the board, the civilian authority over the force, had only one option, other than compromise: charge the chief with insub- ordination. When the board failed to do that last September, the moment passed. To try that in January, a few months before Blair was set to retire, would have been suicidal.

“If the board declared the chief insubordinate, then the matter would go to a tribunal and it would be stuck there for several years, with the carding matter remaining unresolved.

“I’m a practical man. Nobody wants to go to war with the chief.”

So, Mukherjee concluded he would accept an approach that, he says, achieves 90 per cent of the goal — and pursue the rest under a new chief that could be announced as early as Friday. Blair retires at the end of the month.

Mukherjee says he understands the disappointment and the criticism of citizens who’ve clamoured for reforms and were on the verge of receiving them when the police board approved the new carding procedures last year.

He admits the board understands that the proposal mediated by retired judge Warren Winkler is “very different from the 2014 proposal.”

But full reforms were not going to happen under Blair, who was prepared to go only so far.

On Thursday, the board could make a few tweaks on three items, to signal it is listening to concerns.

New rules might say police “shall” (not, may) give citizens a business card following carding interactions. Secondly, if a citizen asks for clarity on whether they are being detained or are free to leave and not answer questions, the police must provide that information. And the chief is to provide clear criteria for eliminating historical data in police files.

Still, “the ground has shifted. The board and the new chief will take us to the next level,” he says.

Mukherjee, 69, has been on the board for 10 years. His term ends a year from now and he won’t seek reappointment. This is his last year as chair, ending in December. His successor is expected to come from a city appointee, to be named in the coming months, who replaces Andy Pringle, a board member whose term ended last November.

Distrust started building among police watchers following a flurry of changes on a board that had finally developed solidarity around policing reforms.

In quick succession, John Tory was elected mayor and took a seat on the board. Tory replaced Councillors Michael Thompson and Frances Nunziata with Shelley Carroll and Chin Lee. Former councillor Mike Del Grande left city hall for the school board. The entire board dynamic changed. And, before long, carding reforms developed over two years were set aside with a compromise critics say gutted the proposal.

At the last police board meeting April 2, where the compromise position was panned by every citizen and group appearing before the board, one speaker wondered if Mukherjee had been kidnapped, zapped and had a brain transplant. “I haven’t been zapped, no.” “The new chief needs some breathing room. To drop the carding bombshell at his door, essentially untouched and without any progress, would be crippling, he said.

Mukherjee said he and the board faced a “practical dilemma.” In trying to accomplish “one of the most significant things the Toronto Police Services Board will do,” the board ran into a brick wall, with no palatable options.

The board is settling for the best option possible and hopes to improve on it at the first possible time — during a review that will come in six months. “I invite people to hold us accountable,” Mukherjee said. “As we watch them, watch the board.” Royson James usually appears Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. Email: rjames@thestar.ca