London Police Chief John Pare at a Police Services Board Meeting. (Photo by Miranda Chant, BlackburnNews.com)London Police Chief John Pare at a Police Services Board Meeting. (Photo by Miranda Chant, BlackburnNews.com)
London

Police Hold Off On New Street Check Regulations

New policies and procedures surrounding police street checks remain up in the air.

London Police Chief John Pare told the Police Services Board Thursday, proposed regulations for street checks by the province were released October 28 and will be open for feedback for 45 days.

Until that time, he would like to hold off on moving forward with the regulations.

"We have been reviewing them in terms of what our position is. There is some concerns, not only locally but across the province, by police leaders and our ability to meet the expectations of public safety," says Pare. "We will be preparing a response to those regulations as they are posted."

Street checks are defined as an “investigative and crime prevention tool” and police officials say they are done in the name of public safety. Often times, a person, vehicle or location that could be of interest to police is targeted.

In 2014, London police conducted street checks on 360,715 people; 71.3% of whom were white, 7.7% were black and 5.3% were of aboriginal descent. The majority of those checked were a known offender.

Ahead of the implementation of any provincial guidelines for street checks, Pare would like to form a "community working group," consisting of a Police Service Board member, London Diversity and Race Relations Committee member, London police diversity officer, youth or post secondary member, community members and an academic with background in diversity and race relations.

"The most important piece is maintaining the positive relationship and the trust of our community. That resulted in my requesting we form a community working group to look at those perceptions of racial bias policing that seem to have struck with many members of our community and across the province," says Pare.

He already has the backing of one city councillor for the new working group.

"I had a conversation with Councilor Mo Salih. He had an interest in it so we are going to work on the next steps in terms of getting the message out to the community and the process for members to submit their interest and some terms of reference around what exactly this committee is going to do," says Pare. "I want it to be an action oriented group. I don't want it to be a committee that is going to sit around and talk and what are our actions going forward."

The Ministry of Community Safety and Correctional Services promised to standardize police street checks in June, stating “it will establish rules to ensure these encounters are without bias, consistent, and carried out in a manner that promotes public confidence.”

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