Friday 25 January 2019

Report Calls on Government to Amend Regulation Concerning Street Checks


By Neil Armstrong

Photo contributed    Justice Michael Tulloch of the Court of Appeal for Ontario


A recently released report is calling on the Ontario government to amend a regulation to state that no police officer should arbitrarily or randomly stop individuals to request their identifying information.

The Report of the Independent Street Checks Review conducted by Jamaica-born  Justice Michael Tulloch, a judge of the Court of Appeal for Ontario, also recommends that officers should be instructed that the requirements of the regulation “apply when a police officer requests identifying information in a regulated interaction, whether or not the officer retains and records the identifying information.”

Justice Tulloch publicly released the report, which includes 104 recommendations, at a hotel in downtown Toronto on January 4.

On June 7, 2017, the judge was appointed by the Government of Ontario to lead an independent review of Regulation 58/16, which was introduced in 2016, and its implementation.

The regulation outlines Ontario’s new rules on the collection of identifying information by police in certain circumstances, “a practice that is commonly known as street checks (and sometimes referred to as carding),” the report notes.

“Street checks were originally intended as an investigative tool to capture the information of people who police had reason to suspect of being involved in criminal activity. Over time, however, it grew into a much less focused practice.

“Some police services began collecting and storing personal identifying information of many citizens without any belief that they were involved in criminal activity, and without much evidence that such databases were particularly useful in solving crime,” said Justice Tulloch in the executive summary of the 295-page report.

He said many of the issues surrounding carding and street checks stem from a misunderstanding of the terms themselves.

“A street check is where information is obtained by a police officer concerning an individual, outside of a police station, that is not part of an investigation.”

The report notes that this is a very broad category of police information gathering, and much of it is legitimate intelligence gathering of potentially useful information.

“Carding, as referred to in this report, is a small subset of street checks in which a police officer randomly asks an individual to provide identifying information when the individual is not suspected of any crime, nor is there any reason to believe that the individual has information about any crime. This information is then entered into a police database.”

The report recommends that, “no police service should randomly stop people in order to collect and record identifying information and create a database for general intelligence purposes.”

Valarie Steele of the Black Action Defense Committee (BADC)


Valarie Steele of the Black Action Defense Committee (BADC) describes the report as excellent noting that it has been done by someone who has a good understanding of what is happening.

“This is somebody who has had experience looking at things like that and the conclusion that he has come to is the right one.”

She said one of the things that continue “to elude the police is that they are thirsty for being respected but most of the things they do earn them the disrespect.”

“Even though rank and file may tell you how fair and how professional and how dedicated they are, my overarching attitude is that they are dedicated to being disrespected by the Black community based on the way they treat them.”

She describes the report as “a foundation document that we will be able to look at in the future” and that it is evident that Justice Tulloch has listened.

Steele said successive provincial governments waited twenty-five years before they looked at policing in Ontario.

She said the BADC has participated in all of the consultations and has been at this for decades, which is why she is encouraging the young people to “fight them tooth and nail and blame every level of government for the disadvantage.”

A recommendation says the regulation “should state that chiefs of police should ensure that every police officer on their police service who attempts to collect identifying information does so in compliance with this regulation.”

The report wants the Province of Ontario to make efforts “to raise public awareness about the content of the regulation, and the circumstances under which people are and are not required to provide identifying information to the police.”

In its response to the report, the Toronto Police Services Board (TPSB) says it supports the intent of the regulation and is in the process of reviewing the significant report by Justice Tulloch. 

“We await the provincial government's substantive response to these important recommendations.  We also look forward to engaging with the government as it considers each of the recommendations, including how the province can develop a robust public education campaign and police training that will provide police officers and members of the public with a better understanding of their rights and obligations during interactions that fall within the Regulation.  The Board also looks forward to more broadly engaging with the government as it determines what changes it will be making to the Safer Ontario Act,” says the TPSB in an email.

The board says it has been demonstrating its commitment and leadership in this area over the last several years. 

TPSB says its policy on “Regulated Interaction with the Community and the Collection of Identifying Information” seeks to establish “a process that will enhance public trust concerning the collection of identifying information, promote police-community engagement and improve community relations.”

It says it welcomes the opportunity Justice Tulloch’s report provides to bring consistency across the province in this important form of police-public interaction.

Sylvia Jones, minister of community safety and correctional services, said the government will review the recommendations and is “committed to developing legislation that works for our police and for the people of Ontario.”
“Our new police legislation will reflect a simple principle: racism and discrimination have no place in policing. Justice Tulloch’s report will inform our work as we fix Ontario’s policing legislation,” she said.

[This story was published in the North American Weekly Gleaner, Jan. 17-23, 2019.]

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