Toronto police unveil new rules for carding
Posted March 27, 2015 5:45 pm.
Last Updated April 24, 2015 3:21 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Toronto police and their board have announced a new policy aimed at preventing discrimination against the public and addressing the controversial policy of “carding.”
The Community Engagements Policy says officers should not single out people based on race, age, colour, gender and a number of other factors. Rather, they should assess whether there’s a risk to the community.
“(Officers) must be able to enter into conversations with residents … in order to provide effective service. They must be able also to gather and retain legitimate information,” the policy says.
“However, they must … respect community members’ rights under the (Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and the Ontario Human Rights Code.) As well, retention and use of information must be consistent with rights under privacy laws.”
Up until the beginning of the year, officers would routinely stop people in the streets and collect personal information. The practice was heavily criticized for targeting black men in the Jane and Finch area.
“Today represents an important landmark in advancing bias-free policing,” Tory said at a news conference on Friday.
“We cannot live in a city where young, black men, for example, feel devalued or disrespected. We cannot have people of colour seen as objects of fear.
“At the same time, we cannot and should not have groups in our city with a predetermined hostility to police.”
Chief Bill Blair jointly announced a set of draft guidelines which will determine training for his officers.
“We recognized we had to provide officers with right direction and proper training to build positive, trusting relationships with the people of Toronto,” he said.
“Racial profiling is not tolerated in the police service. It’s unacceptable. It’s bad policing. It’s stupid, to be quite honest with you.”
Board Chair Alok Mukherjee said the policy came out of public concern, “not because the board decided that there was abuse going on.”
