Carding (police policy)

Toronto Police Service cruisers and officers in 2014.

In Canada, carding, officially known in Ontario as the Community Contacts Policy,[1] is an intelligence gathering policy involving the stopping, questioning, and documenting of individuals when no particular offence is being investigated.[2] The interactions take place in public, private or any place police have contact with the public.[3] The information collected is kept on record in the Field Information Report (FIR) database.[2] FIRs include details including the individuals' gender, race, the reason for the interaction, location, and the names of any associates,[4] to build a database for unspecified future use.[5] Officially, individuals are not legally detained, but this distinction is not clear.[6] [7] Carding programs have been shown to consume a considerable amount of police resources, with little to no verifiable results on the level of crime.[8] Carding is also known to contribute to a disproportionate amount of black and Indigenous people being recorded in law enforcement databases.[6] Consequences for Indigenous and racialized populations include mental and physical health problems, loss of trust with the police, disparities within the criminal justice system, and social disadvantage, including potential loss of educational and employment opportunities.[9]

In summer of 2014, the Toronto Police Service discontinued the use of physical hard copy cards; officers were instead directed to enter the information captured during community engagements into their memobook as Community Safety Notes, which may be retained for a maximum of seven years.[10] Ontario's 2014 Counter Terrorism Plan directs police to ensure carding intelligence "is shared regularly with key partners", including Criminal Intelligence Service Canada, the Ontario Provincial Police, the Canadian Security Intelligence Service and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.[11]

  1. ^ "Police Services Act, R.S.O. 1990, c.P.15, as amended, s. 31(1)(c)" (PDF). Toronto Police Services Board. April 24, 2014. Archived from the original (PDF) on March 31, 2015. Retrieved June 15, 2015. "Contacts" are non-detention, non-arrest interactions between Service and community members that involve the eliciting and/or recording of personal information.
  2. ^ a b Ferreira, Victor (2015-06-03). "Toronto Mayor John Tory vows to reform 'carding' despite calls to end". Posted Toronto. NationalPost.com. Retrieved 2015-06-15. The policy allowed Toronto police to routinely and randomly stop citizens in the streets and record or elicit personal information.
  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference vpd-street-check-definition was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. ^ Rankin, Jim; Winsa, Patty (2012-03-09). "Known to police: Toronto police stop and document black and brown people far more than whites". Toronto Star. Retrieved 2017-07-12. Toronto police document people on forms called Field Information Reports, which include personal details including skin colour, the reason for the interaction, location and names of others — or "associates" — who were involved in the stop.
  5. ^ "London police did not attend a citizens group's debate on the controversial practice of street checks". The London Free Press. 2015-08-20. Retrieved 2017-11-29. a highly controversial practice where police randomly stop and record information about people, vehicles and locations that aren't involved in criminal investigations, to build a database for future use.
  6. ^ a b Wakefield, Jonny (2017-07-10). "Social activist Desmond Cole to speak in Edmonton amid debate on controversial police practice". Edmonton Journal. Retrieved 2017-07-12. The person is not legally detained, but activists say this is often not clear and results in a disproportionate number of black and Indigenous people having information in law enforcement databases.
  7. ^ Schotel, Spencer (2023-01-03). "Briansclub". bigfat. Retrieved 2023-01-03.
  8. ^ Gallant, Jacques (2019-07-29). "Police carding should be banned in Ontario, independent review says". The Star. Retrieved 2018-12-31. A widespread program of random street checks involves considerable time and effort for a police service, with little to no verifiable results on the level of crime or even arrests
  9. ^ Wortley, Scot; Owusu-Bempah, Akwasi (2019). "THE CONSEQUENCES OF RACIAL PROFILING". STREET CHECKS, RACIAL PROFILING AND POLICE-COMMUNITY RELATIONS: A REVIEW OF THE RESEARCH LITERATURE (docx) (Report). Nova Scotia Human Rights Commission. pp. 110–120. Retrieved 2020-06-26.
  10. ^ "The PACER Report – Recommendations Update" (PDF). Toronto Police Service. August 17, 2015. Archived from the original (PDF) on March 4, 2019. Retrieved July 15, 2016. That the Service discontinue use of the physical hard copy card (currently the Community Inquiry Report or TPS 306 Form) and, as a replacement, direct Officers to enter the information captured during such community engagements directly into their memobook for subsequent input into the electronic application.
  11. ^ Rankin, Jim; Gillis, Wendy (2017-04-27). "Ontario police forces share carding data with Mounties, CSIS". Toronto Star. Retrieved 2017-07-22. Municipal police services 'should ensure' that intelligence they gather 'is shared regularly with key partners', including the Criminal Intelligence Service Ontario, the Ontario Provincial Police's anti-terrorism section, the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) and the RCMP, according to the 2014 document — the most recent version of the plan — that was posted online by two small Ontario police services, then apparently removed.