Newsstand: February 9, 2010
Bob Kinnear isn't Greg Kinnear
Duly Quoted: Adam Giambrone
Newsstand: February 8, 2010
Scale Model City, Actual-Size Grime
Polling Booth is a new feature, appearing every Wednesday (and then some), enabling Torontoist readers to anonymously vote on hot-button issues.
The issue of bias in policing is a complicated one: police forces don't like to admit that ethnic bias exists, and keeping records based on ethnicity is seen as a simplified and inaccurate representation of broader cultural context. Seven years ago, following allegations of racial profiling by the Toronto Police Service, then-Chief Julian Fantino launched an extensive internal audit, yet publicly disputed media accusations of bias, stating that the study was meant to deal with "perceptions that have been created," and that "there are instances of inappropriate conduct by a small number of our members…we do not, however, have a racist or corrupt police service." The police union threatened to sue anyone who insinuated that ethnic bias existed within the force—and they did: a libel lawsuit against the Star was brought as far as the Supreme Court, and subsequently dismissed.
Today, Chief Bill Blair presented opening remarks at a diversity conference held at the Toronto Police College, and in a turnabout from his predecessor, frankly admits that ethnic profiling has been an unfortunate reality. However, the TPS has made aggressive strides in changing the face of the force, almost doubling the number of ethnic minorities in just a decade. Now almost one-fifth of police officers are visible minorities.
Police union head Doug Corrigan claims that ethnic bias isn't an ingrained problem within the TPS, but critics say that it's a difficult phenomenon to monitor, and that visible minorities are disproportionately overrepresented in "involuntary police contact." Ironically, these allegations are more challenging to prove now that the Toronto Police no longer record ethnic statistics for routine incidents. Opponents of ethnicity-based data collection say that it reinforces stereotypes and paints an inaccurate picture of minorities; others call for its return, claiming, in part, that it can help keep the police from repeating the mistakes of its past.
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When is it ever better to have no information instead of accurate information?
It's not the collecting of data that's the problem, it's the way it's interpreted and used
it'd be nice to have an option between "Present but necessary" and "Extensive and problematic"
I hear ya, although I included "insignificant" in the first option for those who felt that it was there, but didn't matter that much. I just modified it from "insignificant and uncommon" to "insignificant and/or uncommon." Is that what you mean?
"Uncommon and problematic"
One of the single-most under-appreciated aspects of the Miller mayoralty has been the improvement in policing and police philosophy - which started with giving neanderthal Fantino the boot in favour of Chief Blair.
What is the point of the poll? I think that the data is pretty meaningless.
Almost anyone of colour realizes it's a problem.
What a joke. It's not the colour of police officers that has to change, it's the overall attitude and their perceptions. Hiring someone based on colour is pretty ignorant too. IE, an East Indian cop is less likely to be racist towards a black male? I don't think so.
Making this report disappear really shows me that the police have no diligence in repairing this problem. Sweep it under the rug long enough maybe it'll go away?
This report is absolutely needed. It keeps the balance to (a very small) degree.
Wes is right that we need to collect data, including ethnic descriptions of victims and criminals. But we need to use this information to improve public safety, not to reinforce biases and crack-down on perceived dangers by ethnicity.