Anti-racism advocates call for 'immediate action' amid disparities in Hamilton police use of force data

Anti-racism groups and advocates are calling for "immediate action" from Hamilton Police Service, the mayor and the provincial government after new data showed a "gross over-representation" of Black people when it comes to police use of force.

Community leaders held a press conference late last week, before a police services board meeting, to raise attention to the findings and to demand change after years of activism. 

"If they do not come out of this [police board] meeting with recommendations, that will be a gross irresponsibility for Black community members and racialized community members in this city," said Kojo Damptey, former executive director of the Hamilton Centre For Civic Inclusion.

The police's annual use of force report said Black people were on the receiving end of 17.2 per cent of all use of force incidents in 2022, despite representing only five per cent of Hamilton's population.

The report says "use of force" refers to multiple scenarios, including a firearm drawn, pointed or discharged, the use of a baton, pepper spray or Taser, or physical force that resulted in an injury requiring medical attention.

Some of the calls from advocates included a provincial review of use of force training, and a review by the Ontario Human Rights Commission.

"If the training is great, why did you end up with these numbers?" Damptey asked.

Sarah Jama, member of provincial parliament for Hamilton Centre, told reporters she hears the groups loud and clear, saying she'll work closely with local anti-racism groups to see what she can put forward as a motion or private member's bill at Queen's Park in the coming months.

Calls were made by others including Ameil Joseph, an associate professor in the school of social work at McMaster University, for the role systemic racism plays in policing to be acknowledged directly in the report and for more accountability when red flags are raised in the reports.

More and better data needed for conclusions: police

The police service says racial disparities in the data alone may not be conclusive evidence of systemic racism.

At Thursday's board meeting, a slide from its use of force presentation noted there are four main drivers of disparity:

1. Officers' biases.
2. The service's institutional and cultural practices.
3. Social and demographic factors.
4. A person's choices and actions (which can range from how racial groups interact with police, to how much crime someone commits).

Const. Chelsea Nash, one of the presenters, said officers sometimes have to make numerous considerations in seconds, ranging from what they know about the subject and how they are acting to considering their own abilities as an officer.

The service pointed to limitations in the provincially mandated data, too.

Those limitations include how officers report what race they think someone is, how all officers involved in a use of force incident must submit separate reports, and how officers can only document the perceived race of three people per report.

For example, if five officers use force on four people, each officer would have to submit their own use of force report — leading to five separate reports of the one incident — and could only document the race of three people, even though they used force on four people.

The board heard that next year, the province is letting officers submit a single report, which would eliminate any duplicates and potentially impact the disparities between races.

Board chair Pat Mandy said she supports collecting race-based data but doesn't think the way it is collected now gives people a "true picture of the situation."

"How you recognize who is who … that's what I thought wasn't very helpful and, in fact, is racist in itself," she said.

Chief to meet with board ahead of next report

Ward 2 Coun. Cameron Kroetsch, one of three city council members on the board, said he was "deeply concerned" to see the disparities between racial groups in the use of force data.

He said there needs to be a better, deeper analysis of next year's data.

"According to this analysis, there's no way to reflect on what we can do to stop [the disparity] from happening," Kroetsch said.

Chloe Nyitray, the service's manager of analytics, told him the service has the same goal.

"What you're asking us to do is everything we plan to do, it's just we can't circumvent time," she said.

Bergen also said he wants to meet with the board toward the end of 2023, ahead of the next use of force report, to "set us up for success."

The police service is also launching a race and identity-based data strategy in September.

Mayor Andrea Horwath, who is also on the board, said the board may have some thinking to do about the use of force reporting.

"To what extent does Hamilton, as a community, does this board … feel we maybe need to go above and beyond?"

For more stories about the experiences of Black Canadians — from anti-Black racism to success stories within the Black community — check out Being Black in Canada, a CBC project Black Canadians can be proud of. You can read more stories here.