by Laurie Fenton

Traffic Stop Race Data Collection Project Update – Race Based Data Collection To Continue

It was a 2005 traffic stop that led the 18 year old black male driver, Mr. Chad Aiden, to file the human rights complaint against the Ottawa Police Service.   The Traffic Stop Race Data Collection Project is the result of a 2012 agreement reached between the Ottawa Police Services Board and the Ontario Human Rights Commission that requires officers to record their perception of the driver’s race, by observation only, for traffic stops over a two-year period from June 2013 to June 2015.

The Ontario Human Rights Commission and the York Research Team agree that the Traffic Stop Race Data Collection Project has made significant progress to date and is fulfilling, and in some cases exceeding, the requirements set out in the Minutes of Settlement – including extensive community-police engagement that has shaped the design of the racial profiling project.

The latest project update report provides a timely update on four key areas:

  1. 1.      Data Collection Update: A regular part of their traffic stop duties, officers have collected race based data for over 90,000 stops since data collection began on June 27th, 2013.
  1. 2.      Draft Report & Plan for Analysis: Led by the York Research Team, planning for the data extraction, analysis and report writing phase is well underway thanks to considerable project consultation efforts with both police and community members.  The Team has drafted an outline for the final report along with a plan for analysis of the data.
  1. 3.      Timeline: The York Research Team says that the data analysis and report writing phase could take up to one year to complete with the final report and recommendations expected in Summer of 2016.
  1. 4.      Data Collection Continuance: Based on initial research and consultation efforts, Ottawa Police officers will continue to collect race based data during the data analysis and report writing phase.  The plan for long term data collection will be determined after sufficient police and community consultation on the final report.

Ongoing engagement and dialogue is the foundation for this project. In addition to the major Let’s Chat public forum sessions, the plan for ongoing engagement has also included dialogue sessions and presentations with both police and community members – including COMPAC and the project’s community-police advisory committee. Over a dozen other sessions have been held with student organizations, community centres and organizations, faith based groups, community leaders, community police centre officers, and front-line police officers and supervisors. These sessions continue to provide ongoing exchange on the progress of the project as well as important feedback to help inform the next phases of the project.  In addition, community-police consultation will also be critical to ensure there is a local approach to action planning the final report and recommendations.

The extensive police and community consultation has not only helped shape the design of this project, it has generated important dialogue about race based data collection and bias-free policing. Recognizing that this project is only one component of an integrated strategy to address racial profiling concerns, a review of other areas (training, policy, outreach and recruiting, community engagement) is being conducted to strengthen the Ottawa Police approach to ensuring a bias-free police service. This important work will also promote continued momentum and community-police dialogue while we await the report

Full information, including the agreement, project updates, and opportunities to stay engaged are available online at ottawapolice.ca/race.

Laurie Fenton is the Project Manager, Traffic Stop Race Based Data Collection Project, Ottawa Police Service