London police not doing enough to tackle systemic racism, policing expert says
Indigenous people are more than twice as likely to experience use of force compared to the general population
London police officials are not doing enough to analyze their own race-based use-of-force numbers to start tackling systemic racism within their organization, an expert in police data says.
London police numbers crunched by researcher Tandeep Sidhu show Black people in the city experienced force by officers at a rate five times higher than the general population in 2022. Indigenous Londoners experienced use of force by officers at a rate of just over twice as high as the general population that same year.
"In order to move forward and effectively address these issues, there needs to be an acknowledgment of systemic discrimination in policing practices. This is a matter of public trust and transparency," Sidhu told CBC News.
Sidhu was with a research team analyzing data for the police watchdog Special Investigations Unit. He specializes in race-based numbers analysis and is working on his PhD at the University of Waterloo.
London police made public their annual use-of-force report for 2022 in February. At the time, officials said it appeared use of force against ethno-cultural communities was disproportionate, but "no strong conclusions can be drawn from the data alone, as more information is required before a complete analysis is possible."
That's not what Sidhu got from the numbers. His analysis showed a "clear an consistent pattern of overrepresentation of Black and Indigenous residents in use-of-force incidents," he said.
"This trend cannot be dismissed, as this pattern has replicated itself year over year," Sidhu said. "This is a consistent pattern that cannot be attributed to the interactional level, as the data suggests there is a more systemic component at play."
It's important to remember that Black and Indigenous people may have encountered police in a context that was the result of racial discrimination, for example, a police stop, he added. None of that is shown in the police numbers.
"The London police provides the census data, but does not offer the disproportionality and disparity index. In essence, they are leaving it to the reader to engage in these calculations," Sidhu said.
Leaving out those numbers leaves out a large piece of the puzzle — one that can determine whether a racial group's representation in a system is proportionate to their representation in the overall population.
"The disproportionality and disparity index needs to be used ... it demonstrates a level of transparency and commitment from the police to address systemic discrimination," he said.
The 2022 London police numbers show:
- Black people make up 4 per cent of London's population but were involved in 20 per cent of use of force incidents.
- Indigenous people make up 3.5 per cent of London's population but were involved in 10 per cent of use of force incidents.
- White people make up 67 per cent of London's population and were involved in 67 per cent of use of force incidents.
London police define use-of-force as pointing or firing a handgun, physically controlling a person or using a Taser or baton.
When Sidhu calculated for disproportionality using the LPS's data, he found:
- Black people had force used against them 4.79 times more often than their proportion of the population.
- Indigenous peoples had force used against them 2.29 times more often than their proportion of the population.
- White people had force used against them at a rate proportional to their population numbers.
Under the Ontario Anti-Racism Act, all police services in the province are required to collect, analyze and report race-based data in order to address systemic racism in law enforcement.
Police working on it, they say
When shown Sidhu's analysis, London police said they were working with the Ontario Association of Chiefs of Police to collect more race-based data, but that work had not yet started.
"This initiative has not yet been finalized for our police service, however, as we move forward as an organization, we will endeavour to collect additional race-based data using best practices, in addition to our obligations as outlined in the Anti-Racism Act," said Const. Sandasha Bough.
But the data is already available to police to better understand their own practices, Sidhu said. Police officials could use what they have to show their immediate commitment to improving relationships with diverse communities.
"As opposed to identifying systemic discrimination as an issue affecting the London Police Service, which is something that numerous police services have now identified, this conclusion may be read as the London Police attempting to obfuscate the presence of discrimination in their policing practices," Sidhu said.
"From the outside looking in, this is just presenting data in sheer numbers. There really isn't any analysis being offered of these numbers, so to speak."
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