Report on the use of police force in Toronto: what now?

But this is not the first time reports have been filed about these issues, with police embarking on reform projects – which have aroused a certain skepticism among many. So what are the next steps for the police force?

Toronto police identified 38 actions to address the discrimination issues released Wednesday. Steps that include further training, public consultation, and revision of procedures.

However, Chief James Ramer suggested that the ethnicity data collected by the police would not be used to identify individual acts of racismto discipline particular officers.

This is big holes in the approachsaid Akwasi Owusu-Bempah, professor of sociology at the University of Toronto.

It’s fun to see the change in the way [l’ancien chef] Bill Blair raised these issues, in relation to Chief Ramer. Blair speaks of “implicit bias”, which removes responsibility from the organization and the individual […]. Here Chief Ramer spoke about systemic racism, but there are individuals within the organization who act in some particular way that may be biased or discriminatory.

So, you need to look not only at the policies and practices of the institution, that’s important, but also at the actions of individuals. […]. To understand why these things happenhe summarizes.

If building inspectors are found to have discriminated against people because of their ethnicity, they will be fired. Why treat the police differently?added John Sewell, coordinator of Toronto Police Accountability Coalitionand author of the book Canadian Policing Crisis on the flaws in the country’s policing system.

Of the reform promises made by the police this week, John Sewell still sees no substance. In addition to identifying problematic behaviors to punish them, he believes the priority should be to start disarming the police, and above all: attacking the roots of police culture.

There is an expression that says: culture eats training for dinner. In other words, the culture is so strong that offering more training does nothing.

Deep change

Stronger promises will not come from law enforcement itself, but rather from the police service boards that are there to oversee them, Sewell continued. We need a commission that is serious and challenges what the police chief is saying, bringing in new rules.

Moreover, profound change must go through the political will of governments and through legislative frameworks, judge Christian Leuprecht, professor at the Royal Military College of Canada and at Queen’s University.

” The data we have are symptoms of a more systematic problem within our police services, the way our police services are managed, the leadership, the training, the way we recruit, the policies in the place. “

The general public is trying to change what they see as the problem – the interaction [policière] Just like. But I think we have bigger problems with our police services that can’t be solved any more [transparence] or with cameras for example.

I don’t have much hope that things will change, Leuprecht concludes. Because, yes, we can make tactical changes that will hopefully improve things. But at the end of the day, we need to rethink the way we deliver policing in Toronto, Ontario, and Canada, and I don’t see that perspective, the creativity, or the political will to devote that.

In the meantime, reports and recommendations continue to rise. John Sewell compiled a list of 48 reports prepared for governments across the country over the past 20 years, on necessary changes for the police. His conclusion: Almost none of these recommendations were adopted.

Reduction of funds

Data released by Toronto police this week also raised the question of a determining investment of the font.

Akwasi Owusu-Bempah, on the other hand, speaks rather than reviewing or withdrawing certain activities (detask) to the police, especially in mental health cases. One must take into account the fact that if the police do not intervene less, there will be fewer opportunities to use force.

There are some activities that can be removed from the police and given to other agencies. Or if it doesn’t have other agencies, they should be created.

With information from Camille Gris Roy and Lorenda Reddekopp