Shedding light on police stops

Activists in N.Y., London may be looking to Toronto after police board ruling

Monitor the controversial police practice of stopping citizens on the street, particularly minority youth, and “carding” them. Make officers give a copy of the gathered information to those they stop. Open police data for review by the city’s auditor general.

That’s what the Toronto Police Services Board is ordering, stunning even the activists who fought for more oversight of carding, which sees hundreds of thousands of people stopped, questioned and documented each year.

The Toronto board’s decision, made earlier this month, is “pretty amazing,” says former mayor John Sewell, a member of the Toronto Police Accountability Coalition, a group of concerned citizens who led the drumbeat for change.

Toronto police defend the practice as good police work in high crime areas. But a Star investigation found that police stop and document minorities at much higher rates across the city. And only a small percentage of the people in their massive electronic database have been arrested or charged in Toronto in the past decade.

The practice is also a front-page debate in New York and London.

Police stops have been under scrutiny in all three cities. But the type of oversight that may limit the practice can only be found here, thanks to the ruling.

The motions that passed included a request that police chief Bill Blair report carding statistics every three months, as well as monitor and address discriminatory practices.