A new police report revealed that in 2023, Black individuals, who constitute only five percent of the city’s population, accounted for 17 percent of police use of force incidents. (Bobby Hristova/CBC)
June 28, 2024 Story by: Editor
Ameil Joseph, an associate professor in the School of Social Work at McMaster University, criticized the police for neglecting the needs of racialized communities.
“The report is deeply problematic as it demonstrates an ongoing multi-year failure to respond to the disproportionate use of police violence on racialized groups,” he stated in an email. “At this stage, an independent inquiry and response, with community feedback, is required. This can no longer be left to HPS to address; people are being violently harmed.”
In response to these concerns, Deputy Chief Paul Hamilton, in an interview following the board meeting, acknowledged the seriousness of the comments and mentioned the creation of a community advisory panel this year to enhance communication with diverse communities and address discrimination.
Racialized community members have previously expressed concerns about the advisory panel, suggesting it should be independent of the police service. On Friday, Hamilton noted that the police also actively recruit within racialized communities to have a force that better reflects the city it serves.
“While these numbers are small, we know they still have a big impact on those affected communities,” he said. “Our goal is to address systematic issues and improve fairness and equity in policing.”
The report also highlighted that other racialized groups were over-represented in use-of-force incidents with Hamilton police. People of Middle Eastern descent, who make up four percent of Hamilton’s population, were involved in nine percent of incidents where force was used. Indigenous people, comprising two percent of the population, accounted for four percent of these incidents. However, police noted that the sample size for Indigenous people was small, with 17 instances of force reported for that group. White people represented the highest percentage of subjects involved in use of force incidents at 64 percent, while they make up 74 percent of Hamilton’s population.
Police at Thursday’s meeting mentioned that the use of force data collection process had improved in 2023 compared to previous years. There were fewer duplicate reports as officers were no longer required to file individual reports on the same incident. Additionally, race-based data collection improved, allowing officers to report the race of all individuals involved in an interaction. Previously, they could only report on three subjects, even if more people were involved.
“The change in reporting requirements makes year-over-year comparisons analytically challenging for analyzing reports versus incidents,” this year’s report noted.
In 2023, there were 265 use-of-force incidents, resulting in 361 reports submitted to the solicitor general. In some instances, multiple officers still file reports on the same incident.
Use of force incidents accounted for about 0.1 percent of all Hamilton police interactions with the public in 2023, according to the report. Source: CBC News
