Time to get ‘carding’ right
There are two possible explanations for Toronto Police Chief Bill Blair’s suspension of “carding” as of Jan.1. The first is that he’s given up on delivering reforms demanded by the Toronto Police Services Board. Rather than fixing carding, he has opted to dump it.
The second is that solid reforms are coming, timed for the board’s February session, and the city’s existing, flawed system has merely been put on hold until necessary changes are made. With Blair refusing to offer details until the board’s next meeting it’s not clear which strategy is in play. But Toronto would be best served if the plan is still to reform carding rather than to abandon the entire approach.
There’s broad agreement that the system can’t continue the way it has been operating. Carding is a controversial police practice which, until last week, had officers stopping people simply to collect personal information — without any evidence of crime having occurred. Data obtained this way was recorded on “contact cards” and stored in police computers for potential analysis.
The system was meant to help officers better understand the neighbourhood they were patrolling by making them more familiar with people in the area. And, police said, the resulting database did provide clues useful in solving some cases. But a series of Star investigations has shown that people with black or brown skin have been carded at disproportionately high rates. And that troubling pattern is consistent with racial profiling.
A policy flawed in this way can’t help but fuel resentment, especially among members of some of Toronto’s most disadvantaged communities.
In an effort to ease rancour and provide a greater measure of fairness the police board passed new carding measures last April requiring officers to have a valid public safety reason for stopping people and asking intrusive questions. These encounters weren’t to be used by police simply to fish for information. And all who were stopped were to be informed of their right to refuse to answer officers’ questions.
Blair was supposed to translate this worthwhile shift into operational directives guiding officers on the street. But the chief fell short in enacting such measures. There was very little change.
Instead of letting the matter drop, the police board used its mid-December meeting to reaffirm its commitment to progress. The panel set a February deadline for bringing reformed carding procedures. Toronto Mayor John Tory, newly seated on the board, went so far as to call the existing system “corrosive” and “fundamentally inconsistent with how we do things in Toronto.”
In was in this context that Blair suspended carding “until further notice,” as of the start of the year. Some dedicated opponents of carding, including Howard Morton, a member of the Law Union of Ontario, have hailed this suspension as a step toward eliminating the practice. It may, indeed, signify that enacting reform is more than Blair can handle.
If so, the matter should be passed to Toronto’s next chief following Blair’s scheduled departure at the end of April. A properly reformed carding system would be worth keeping.
This isn’t just a useful policing tool. The Star’s Royson James notes that, in addition to amassing data on people in the street, carding can be used to document officers’ behaviour. If done right, it can shed valuable light on interactions between the public and police, including how various minorities are treated. That’s why carding needs to be fixed.
If Blair instituted a suspension simply for the next few weeks, while crafting workable reform procedures, we can only wish him success. But if he can’t get the job done, he should prepare to hand the challenge to someone who can.
Police Chief Bill Blair should push to reform rather than abandon controversial practice of carding