London Council has voted unanimously to call on the city's Police Services Board to end street checks, while the chief of police continues to stand by the practice.
During council's meeting on Tuesday, councillors voted 11-0 in favour of a motion that asks the board to establish a policy that prohibits the use of police street checks, and ensures all police activity is non-discriminatory and non-arbitrary. The motion, which was also passed unanimously by the Community and Protective Services Committee last week, stated that recent revised provincial regulations are not enough to “address systemic racism behind the practice."
Councillor Mo Salih made an emotionally charged case against the street checks just before council made its vote.
"I have a privilege now because I'm a city councilor. I have a privilege that a lot of people who look like me, who are young and black, don't have. Now when I'm out and about in the community, maybe it's not so easy for somebody to stop me... but those are the realities of people in our community every single day," he said. "For people to stand behind policy, and for people to tell me anecdotal stories that this is going to keep us safe, is just an insult to me and everyone elses experiences."
Salih went on to say that, throughout his life, he has been targeted by police because of the colour of his skin.
"I was that 14-year-old boy who was stopped for no reason, I was that 20-year-old man who was stopped for no reason, I was that 25-year-old man who was stopped for no reason. Since my adult life, I can tell you I have been stopped 15 times for no reason," he said. "It is deeply humiliating."
Many of the councillors in attendance also voiced their strong opposition to carding during the meeting, including Councillor Maureen Cassidy.
"Until the [provincial government] comes along and makes an edict that says this will stop across the province, until that happens, I recognize that the final say is the [police] chief's, but we can stand as a council and say it's not right and it should stop," said Cassidy.
However, just 90 minutes before city council's meeting, London Police Chief John Pare and Chair of the Police Services Board Janet Eberhard held a last minute news conference to again defend the controversial practice of carding.
"The regulations provide clear direction for all police services for when a police officer may collect information and when it is prohibited," said Pare.
New regulations, which come into effect in January, include issuing a receipt to every individual stopped and ensuring they know it is voluntary to answer police questions.
"The regulations have reinforced what we need to do to ensure that we provide bias-free policing and still allow for that public safety and investigative tool to be available to the members," said Pare. "We are following the regulations, we are doing the training, we are serious about making the changes that need to be there."
Pare said the number of people being stopped has decreased from an average of roughly 200 every a week in a half to just over 100.
"I would ask you to judge people on their future actions and not previous ones," said Eberhard when stressing their would be an annual report compiled on the practice at the end of 2017.
During council's meeting later in the day, Mayor Matt Brown stated that a statistic provided by the local police service shows that "people of colour, visible minorities are three times more likely to be stopped on the streets here in London than a white person."
However, in response to suggestions that minorities are disproportionately affected by carding, Pare has shifted the blamed to larger social issues.
"Certain groups, racialized or otherwise have higher rates of contact with police. This is not a phenomenon to London.. there are a number of social economic factors that may or may not contribute to this," said Pare. "To characterize the collection of identifying information as a racist practice is really a simplistic response to a complex issue."
Social justice advocate Forrest Bivens, who rushed to police headquarters to take in the afternoon news conference, was enraged by what he heard.
"People don't seem to understand the effect that it has. Even if you've never been carded as a person of colour, you know that you are statistically more apt to be stopped. So you're looking over your shoulder," said Bivens. "The people who are making these decisions...it doesn't effect their lives or the lives of people they love. It doesn't effect the lives of the people they socialize with on a daily basis. If they are not seeing the effects of it, then why should they care?"
Bivens is calling on Londoners to stand together to force police to end the practice.
"It's going to take more of you guys, who are not people of colour, to raise up in numbers and tell them to stop. It's going to take political will that we alone do not have," said Bivens.
- This article was written by BlackburnNews.com reporters Kirk Dickinson and Miranda Chant