VANCOUVER POLICE BOARD STREET CHECK REVIEW 17 December, 2019 Ruth Montgomery, M.A. Curt Taylor Griffiths, Ph.D. Nahanni Pollard, Ph.D. Josh Murphy, M.A. Angela Ripley, Ph.D. PYXIS CONSULTING GROUP INC. TABLE OF CONTENTS Abbreviations and Acronyms ................................................................................................... viii List of Figures ............................................................................................................................... ix List of Tables ................................................................................................................................. x Acknowledgments ........................................................................................................................ xi Executive Summary .................................................................................................................... xii Chapter 1: Introduction and Background of the Review.......................................................... 1 Background ............................................................................................................................... 1 Chapter 2: Project Methodology ................................................................................................. 6 Limitations ................................................................................................................................ 9 Chapter 3: Literature Review .................................................................................................... 12 The Controversy Over Street Checks ..................................................................................... 13 Police Work in a Democratic Society ..................................................................................... 14 The Mandated and Assumed Responsibilities of the Police ............................................. 14 Police Legitimacy ............................................................................................................. 16 Policing in a Diverse Society ............................................................................................ 18 The Police and Vulnerable and At-Risk People ............................................................... 19 Racial Profiling and Discrimination in Canadian Society ................................................ 19 Police Racial Profiling, Biased Policing, and Criminal Profiling ..................................... 20 Over-policing and Pretext Policing ................................................................................... 21 Street Checks and Carding ................................................................................................ 22 Police Policies on Racial Profiling and Street Checks...................................................... 23 The Role of Police Officer Discretion in Street Checks ................................................... 26 Street Checks and the Police Exercise of Lawful Authority................................................... 28 Street Checks and Procedural Justice ............................................................................... 28 The Lived Experiences of People in Communities of Diversity ...................................... 30 The Lived Experiences of Police Officers ........................................................................ 32 The Potential Benefits of Street Checks ........................................................................... 32 The Value of Street Checks .............................................................................................. 34 The Police and Communities of Diversity: The Research ...................................................... 35 The Limitations of Research on Police Street Checks ...................................................... 41 The Issue of Disproportionality in Street Checks ............................................................. 43 ii The Dynamics of the Police–Citizen Encounters ............................................................. 43 The Use of Police-Recorded Data for Research on Police Racial Profiling and Street Checks ............................................................................................................................... 44 The Ethnicity Variable ...................................................................................................... 46 The Context of Street Checks ........................................................................................... 47 The Officer Conducting the Street Check ......................................................................... 50 Police Encounters with Citizens that do not Result in a Street Check Report .................. 51 The Challenges of Proving Racial Profiling in Police Street Checks ............................... 52 Police Officer Training and Cultural Competencies ............................................................... 54 Trauma-Informed Policing................................................................................................ 55 Communicating with and Educating the Public................................................................ 55 Creating and Enhancing Police–Community Relationships ............................................. 58 Recommendations from the Halifax Study ............................................................................. 58 The Potential of Community Policing .............................................................................. 61 Community Consultation and Community Engagement .................................................. 63 The Role of the Community in Discussions of Police Street Checks ............................... 65 Community Policing and Street Checks ........................................................................... 65 Should Street Checks be Banned? An Ongoing Dialogue ................................................ 68 Concluding Thoughts .............................................................................................................. 70 Chapter 4: Policing in Vancouver ............................................................................................. 72 The Vancouver Police Department ......................................................................................... 72 The Vancouver Policing Context ............................................................................................ 74 Crime and the Demands for Service ................................................................................. 74 District 1............................................................................................................................ 77 District 2 and the Downtown East Side ............................................................................ 80 District 3............................................................................................................................ 82 District 4............................................................................................................................ 83 Building and Sustaining Relationships with Communities of Diversity ................................ 85 Chapter 5: Analytical Review of Understanding Street Checks ............................................ 87 Introduction to Analytics ........................................................................................................ 87 VPD Street Check Data Questions ......................................................................................... 87 Prior Criminality of People Being Street Checked ........................................................... 90 “Check Well-being” Code ................................................................................................ 91 Street Checks of Indigenous Women and Missing Persons Reports ................................ 93 2018 Street Check Expanded Database .................................................................................. 94 iii Street Checks Flagged for Errors .................................................................................... 104 Location of the 2018 Street Checks ................................................................................ 105 Timing of Street Checks ................................................................................................. 107 Ethnicity .......................................................................................................................... 108 Summary of Data Examination and Conclusions ................................................................. 109 Chapter 6: VPD Street Check Policy, Management, and Training ..................................... 111 Policy and Procedure ............................................................................................................ 111 VPD Member Perspectives on Street Check Policy ............................................................. 111 Community Perspectives on the Need for a Street Check Policy ......................................... 113 Comparison of Policy Recommendations from Canadian Street Check Reviews ............... 113 Street Check Processing and Management ........................................................................... 116 Access and Confidentiality ................................................................................................... 117 Retention ........................................................................................................................