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City of Edmonton Street Checks Policy and Practice Review

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City of Edmonton Street Checks Policy and Practice Review CITY OF EDMONTON STREET CHECKS POLICY AND PRACTICE REVIEW Curt Taylor Griffiths, Ph.D. Ruth Montgomery, MA Joshua J. Murphy, MA Curt T. Griffiths, Ltd. Prepared for the Edmonton Police Commission June 2018 EPS STREET CHECK POLICY & PRACTICE REVIEW Page ii EPS Street Check Policy & Practice Review TABLE OF CONTENTS TABLE OF CONTENTS ................................................................................................................. III LIST OF TABLES ........................................................................................................................ VII TABLE OF FIGURES .................................................................................................................. VIII ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ............................................................................................................... 1 INTRODUCTION ......................................................................................................................... 3 The Present Study ...................................................................................................................................... 5 Project Method.......................................................................................................................................... 5 RACISM, PREJUDICE, AND DISCRIMINATION IN CANADIAN SOCIETY ................................................... 7 Racialized Persons, Racialization, and Racial Profiling ............................................................................. 8 The Experiences of Communities of Diversity ........................................................................................... 9 The Lived Experiences and Perspectives of Persons in Communities of Diversity ................................... 11 THE POLICE AND STREET CHECKS .............................................................................................. 15 Disproportionality in Street Checks ......................................................................................................... 15 Street Checks and Procedural Justice ...................................................................................................... 16 The Role of Police Officer Discretion in Street Checks ............................................................................. 17 Police Discretion and Decision Making ................................................................................................... 18 Racial Profiling and Biased Policing ........................................................................................................ 19 Street Check Legislation and Guidelines ................................................................................................. 20 POLICE STREET CHECKS: A BRIEF REVIEW OF THE RESEARCH LITERATURE ........................................ 22 Canadian Research on Police Street Checks ............................................................................................ 23 Counting Cards ........................................................................................................................................ 25 CONSIDERATIONS IN THE STUDY OF POLICE STREET CHECKS .......................................................... 28 Variation in Terms and Definitions .......................................................................................................... 28 Racial Profiling versus Criminal Profiling ................................................................................................ 29 The Issue of Psychological Detention ...................................................................................................... 30 The Validity of Police Street Check Data ................................................................................................. 30 The Design and Method of Street Check Studies .................................................................................... 31 The Assumption of Homogeneity Within Communities of Diversity ....................................................... 34 The Context Within Which Street Checks Occur ...................................................................................... 35 Downloading and Police Street Checks ................................................................................................... 36 The Potential Benefits of Street Checks .................................................................................................. 37 The Activities and Prior Criminal Involvement of Persons Who Are Street Checked ............................... 37 The Street-Checked Person’s Racial or Ethnic Identity or Other Attributes ............................................ 39 The Dynamics of the Police-Citizen Encounter ........................................................................................ 39 The Officer Conducting the Street Check................................................................................................. 40 Police Encounters with Citizens that Do Not Result in an SCR ................................................................ 41 The Lived Experiences of Persons in Communities of Diversity ............................................................... 42 Public Knowledge of Street Checks ......................................................................................................... 43 Page iii EPS STREET CHECK POLICY & PRACTICE REVIEW The Role of the Community in the Use of Street Checks by Police .......................................................... 43 The Reliance on Survey Data ................................................................................................................... 43 The Phenomenon of De-Policing ............................................................................................................. 44 The Role of Private Security in Policing Communities of Diversity .......................................................... 44 The Complexity of the Street Check Issue ................................................................................................ 46 POLICING IN EDMONTON ......................................................................................................... 47 The Edmonton Police Service .................................................................................................................. 48 Diversity in the EPS .................................................................................................................................. 50 Crime and the Demands for Service ........................................................................................................ 50 EPS Response to Demands for Service .................................................................................................... 68 Proactive Patrol Time .............................................................................................................................. 69 Community Engagement and Relationship Building ............................................................................... 70 THE EPS STREET CHECK GUIDELINES, PROCEDURES, AND TRAINING ................................................ 72 Confidentiality of SCR Information .......................................................................................................... 75 Retention of SCRs .................................................................................................................................... 76 EPS Street Check Training........................................................................................................................ 76 Public Complaints Related to SCRs .......................................................................................................... 78 REVIEW OF THE 2017 EPS STREET CHECK REPORTS .................................................................... 79 The Review Protocol ................................................................................................................................ 79 Findings from the Review ........................................................................................................................ 81 Conflicting Officer Assessments of Subject’s Race/Ethnicity ................................................................... 84 The Ethnicity of Persons In SCRS ............................................................................................................. 86 Selected Examples of SCRs Submitted By EPS Officers In 2017 ............................................................. 114 Comment ............................................................................................................................................... 123 INTERVIEWS AND FOCUS GROUP SESSIONS ................................................................................ 124 Communities of Diversity ...................................................................................................................... 124 Interviews With Representatives Of Community Organizations ........................................................... 129 Focus Groups With Organization Staff And Persons From Communities Of Diversity .......................... 130 Limitations of the Community Interviews and Focus Groups ................................................................ 133 THE EPS ............................................................................................................................
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