Police carding now subject to strict new regulation

The controversial practice known as police carding is now subject to a stringent new regulation that took effect Sunday across Ontario.

The new law is intended to strictly control the police practice of arbitrarily stopping and questioning individuals who have no direct connection to a crime as either a suspect or a witness.

The regulation also makes specific reference about the arbitrary collection of information from individuals belonging to “a particular racialized group.”

Data obtained in recent years from Hamilton and Toronto has shown that people from visible minorities have been carded at disproportionately higher rates than their representation in the general population.

Under the new law, police officers attempting to collect information arbitrarily must now:

Provide details about the reason why an individual was targeted for information;

Inform the person he or she is not required to provide identifying information;

Inform the person why police are attempting to obtain information;

Offer to give the individual a record of the interaction, and provide the document if requested.

The record of the interaction must contain details that identify the officer, the date, time and location of the encounter, information about how to contact Ontario’s Independent Police Review Director and an explanation that the person can request access to their information through the province’s Freedom of Information legislation.

The new law also requires the police chief to conduct annual reviews of a database to ensure compliance and conduct training so officers are aware that people stopped arbitrarily have the right to discontinue the interaction.

The chief must also produce an annual report that includes the number of arbitrary interactions, broken down by gender, race, age and neighbourhood, and whether those rates are disproportional.

Ancaster Coun. Lloyd Ferguson, chair of the Police Services Board, could not be reached for comment.

Jaime Stephenson, president of the Hamilton Criminal Lawyers’ Association, said the new regulation is a step in the right direction, particularly the requirement officers must inform people stopped arbitrarily they aren’t obligated to provide information.

“A lot of people don’t know that they don’t have to answer a police officer’s questions or identify themselves if it’s an arbitrary stop,” said Stephenson. “They just assume ‘Well, it’s a police officer and they’re asking me a question so I’d better answer it.’

“But policing the police is always a difficult thing,” she added, “and how do we know that every officer is actually recording every interaction that they have? The problem is we won’t know.”

Ward 3 Coun. Matthew Green said the new regulation doesn’t address what he believes is the root of the problem — a fundamental shift in policing culture since the 9/11 terrorist attacks in the U.S.

“Under the philosophy of intelligence-led policing post 9/11, citizens have effectively become suspects,” said Green. “Carding is the street-level application of mass data collection where everybody is a suspect and all information is held and retained in perpetuity.

“They used to serve and protect and now it’s this kind of anti-terrorism, paramilitary style of policing and that’s really what needs to change,” Green added.

Green found himself at the centre of the carding issue last April when he was carded while waiting for a bus on a Hamilton street. The officer is now facing a discreditable conduct charge under the Police Services Act.