Chatham-Kent Police Chief Gary Conn. (Photo courtesy of the Chatham-Kent Police Service)Chatham-Kent Police Chief Gary Conn. (Photo courtesy of the Chatham-Kent Police Service)
Chatham

CK Police Adapt 'Carding' Rules

The Chatham-Kent Police Service is changing its "carding" policy, though Chief Gary Conn says the process has never been an issue locally.

"I do not believe it will affect us to the extent it may affect some of the larger police services," says Conn. "What's nice about being in a small community, is a lot of our chronic offenders, what I like to call 'career criminals,' our officers already know who they are."

Carding refers to the collecting of "identifying information" by police, generally taking place in the community. The province has adapted the Police Services Act in an attempt to stamp out arbitrary carding, following reports of racial or biased profiling in larger cities.

While municipalities like London are pushing for carding to be banned, Chatham-Kent is adapting its policy to adhere to the new provincial standards, which take effect January 1, 2017.

Now, if officers ask for someone's identity on the street, they have to state why they're requesting the information, and tell that individual they don't have to release that information if they don't want to. They'll also be offered a receipt from police, indicating the officer's name and badge number.

Conn adds, however, that there are exceptions to the rule changes.

"Under the Highway Traffic Act, if I stop someone for speeding they have to identify themselves to me," says Conn. "If I arrest somebody for trespassing, again this piece of legislation does not apply."

Conn credits Waterloo Police Chief Bryan Larkin as one of the most engaged law enforcement officials to help set up the standards and templates for the new policy changes.

He also stresses that, after looking through years of reports, Chatham-Kent police have never received a complaint about unlawful carding.

"We as an agency have ever supported randomly, arbitrarily stopping individuals because of race religion or gender," says Conn. "That's never been the case."

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