Black officers confirmed profiling

[nattyreb]

Did you think what i thought when i first saw the title, i.e. black cops participating in racial profiling? Your first impressions are usually right, cuz after reading this article that tries to portray them as giving a sh*t, i have no doubt that these black cops not only condone the profiling but participate in it. For them to still wear the uniform of the oppressor makes them complicit in the oppression taking place & don't ever be fooled by 'em! FTP!
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Toronto Star

Black officers confirmed profiling

PHILIP MASCOLL AND JIM RANKIN
STAFF REPORTERS

The meeting was without precedent. Four of the Toronto Police Service's
most senior and respected black officers, along with 38 other black
officers from across the force, gathered on company time to have a frank
discussion about what it was like to be a black member of a force facing
allegations of racial profiling.

What emerged from the session in October, 2003, held at the request of
then chief Julian Fantino, was far more wide-ranging. It was also
disturbing, and it was agreed that the details would remain an internal
matter. The force had publicly said there was no racial profiling taking
place, and that any incidents of racially biased policing could be chalked
up to a few bad apples.

But according to documents and notes obtained by the Toronto Star, the
black officers said racial profiling was a reality on the force. Many said
they had experienced racism on the job. Some said they had witnessed
incidents of biased policing but were reluctant to report them out of fear
of being ostracized.

The majority in the room said they themselves had been inappropriately
stopped by police while they were off-duty. Three said they'd been stopped
more than once in a single week.

One officer said a colleague referred to black citizens on bicycles as
"chimps on bikes."

The consensus was that any organization, recruiting from the public at
large, is liable to hire a few people with racist views. But the black
officers felt the problem was serious, and nothing would change until
matters were dealt with internally.

That was the message taken back to Fantino and the senior command in two
closed-door meetings over the following weeks, where the findings were
presented by the force's four most senior black officers: Supt. Keith
Forde, Supt. (then Staff Inspector) Peter Sloly, Staff Insp. Karl Davis and
Insp. David McLeod.

Fantino, who is now Ontario's Commissioner of Emergency Management, said
yesterday he recalled being surprised and upset by some of the allegations
that came out of the focus group. Some of it, he said, he was hearing for
the first time in his career.

"I've always been conscientious about our relationship, not only between
the police and the community, but, also between the police and the police,"
said Fantino. "I always was committed to making sure that the internal
environment was one where we treated everyone with dignity and respect, as
we expected we should treat the public and expected to be treated ourselves."

Chief Fantino, who had already launched initiatives aimed at improving
race relations internally and externally, promised to look into the issues
and have specific alleged incidents of misconduct internally investigated.

Now the same issues have resurfaced following a Feb. 20 incident at a
Scarborough police station.

Insp. David McLeod, one of the senior black officers who helped convene
the focus group, was in plainclothes when he went to fuel up his unmarked
police vehicle at 42 Division police station, sources said. A junior
officer who was there fuelling his own cruiser demanded to see his
identification, sources said. McLeod asked, according to sources, if a
white officer would be asked to do the same.

Complaints and counter-complaints have been laid over the incident. In
the process, the 16-month-old findings of the black officers' focus group
resurfaced.

The complaints and the focus group's findings are now a top priority for
interim police chief Mike Boyd, who met with the four senior black officers
in early March.

Boyd said in an interview yesterday that he had retired from the force a
month before the results of the focus group were shared with senior command
officers, and was unaware of the contents of some of the material obtained
by the Star.

But he said he made a commitment to the black officers that "we would
continue to move forward on these issues, and my sense was that they
recognized the commitment.

"I think we need to go deeper" than just investigating individual
incidents, said Boyd. "I believe from what I'm learning now about this
review with the 38 officers, I believe that there's more that we can do,
and what we should be able to do with this. I think we have to drill down.
I think we have to speak with members. I think we have to understand the
experiences that they're describing."

It was chief Fantino himself who, in mid-October 2003, asked the senior
black officers to look into how allegations of racial profiling by Toronto
police were affecting black officers.

It had been a year since the Toronto Star published a series on race and
crime, which used police arrest data to suggest blacks were treated
differently than whites in certain circumstances. But the controversy
surrounding the series, and the chief's denial of any widespread problem,
was quite alive.

The Star series had also prompted the Toronto Police Association to
launch a $2.7 billion class action libel suit against the paper, which was
ultimately dismissed by the Supreme Court of Canada.

Fantino asked the most senior of the black officers, Supt. Forde, to
prepare a report for an upcoming police conference. Forde insisted that the
three other senior black officers -- who had on several occasions before
offered their services to the chief on the racial profiling issue -- also
be involved.

At the request of the senior officers, Fantino ordered the commanders of
the 16 units that make up the police service to each send at least one
black officer to a focus group the senior officers were calling.

When the group sat down a week later in a classroom at the C.O. Bick
College police training facility in Scarborough -- where Forde is
commanding officer -- there were black officer of all ages and of lengths
of service, ranging from three years to more than 30.

The Star obtained copies of speaking notes and a slide presentation,
which sources said reflect what was discussed at the focus group meeting.
They provide a rare glimpse of what black officers say they experience on
the job, and as black citizens when the uniforms come off.

They suggest a much more serious problem than the force has previously
admitted to.

"We know racial profiling exists," the speaking notes declared.

Officers described "differential enforcement activities" -- including
derogatory comments directed at officers and members of the public -- but
were reluctant to report such incidents out of a fear it would lead to them
being ostracized.

The stereotype that black motorists in expensive cars and neighbourhoods
receive extra attention was true.

Black officers were concerned police brass do not care about racist
behaviour, that bad apples are protected, and that remedies are not
effective or not taken.

In once instance, an officer allegedly referred to black citizens riding
bicycles as "chimps on bikes" and the acronym COBs was used on one of the
in-car computer screens.

There remained a belief in the stereotype that black officers are lazy,
while black officers felt they were not allowed the same margin of error as
others.

The overall climate was not changing despite a zero-tolerance stance
taken by former chief Fantino.

Black officers wanted to defend the organization, but felt nothing could
be done externally until internal issues were dealt with.

11 of the group had reported instances of racial misconduct, although all
had experienced or witnessed as much.

The majority felt they'd been stopped for improper reasons while off duty.

Half a dozen said they'd been stopped more than 12 times in a year and
three said they'd been stopped more than once in a one-week span.

In their initial report, the senior officers had suggested that because
of the shocking findings, it would be best for the force if a more general
-- "watered down," one source described it -- version of the focus group
was shared at an upcoming conference.

The source said Fantino agreed.

On Nov. 8, the four senior black Toronto officers delivered their
presentation on racial profiling -- from the perspective of a black officer
-- to a room full of senior Ontario police officers who came to Toronto for
a conference on "Policing a Diverse Community."

It was a two-day, police-only gathering, hosted by the Toronto Police
Service and sponsored by the International Association of Chiefs of Police
and the Ontario Association of Chiefs of Police.

Aside from a guest media speaker, no reporters were allowed at the sessions.

The black Toronto officers' presentation began with the statement: "We
know racial profiling exists."

The officers noted that racial profiling, as opposed to criminal
profiling, was a poor policing tool, and that there were strong indicators
that there is a systemic form of racism in law enforcement that supports
systemic racial profiling.

A key conclusion of the presentation suggested that the same "systemic
form of racism" represented by barriers to promotion and other issues also
supported systemic racial profiling of citizens.

The presentation also dealt with police management issues, and a
reluctance to face the 21st-century reality of policing a diverse
community. Police forces "recruit from the general community and that means
we will recruit racists," according to presentation documents. "We
recruit," the officers noted, "from the human race."

Without pinning anything to any one force, including their own, the
officers noted that off-duty visible minority officers feel that they
themselves have been stopped by police because of the colour of their skin.

According to conference notes, the officers also noted that visible
minority officers feel they face a higher level of scrutiny than their
peers, are not given the same job opportunities, and that racial misconduct
is often not reported.

According to the notes, the officers told the conference that racial
incidents were not as blatant as they used to be, and that police
organizations are changing for the better. And much of the presentation
dealt with ways to make things better, including better training and
recruiting practises.

In summing things up, according to conference notes, the senior Toronto
officers stressed black officers have the best interests of their
organizations and communities at heart, that racial profiling is a product
of racism and organizational culture, and spoke of the importance of
addressing the root causes of the problem, rather than adopting measures to
mask the symptoms.

Two weeks after the conference, an unedited version of the presentation
was given to the service's command officers - including the chief, deputy
chiefs, senior superintendents and the heads of administration and
professional standards.

Some weeks later, Fantino met with the focus group, at the college and
heard them for himself.

He again promised that specific allegations would be investigated by
Professional Standards, a source said.

"I wanted to get these issues sorted out in a way that would be helpful
to us, on all fronts -- internal to the organization, and external the
organization," Fantino said yesterday.

Fantino said he promised the officers he would have specific allegations
of racial misconduct investigated, but he couldn't recall whether any
incidents raised by the officers had been formally complained about, and
was uncertain if any investigations were launched.

Calls to Toronto Police Association president Dave Wilson were not
returned yesterday.

The four senior black officers were also unavailable to comment on this
story.

Inspector David McLeod referred the Star to his lawyer, Selwyn Pieters.

"Inspector McLeod does believe that the new command structure in place
will give a high priority to addressing these systemic issues raised in the
consultation with black officers," Pieters said, "since the public's
interest and service's interests are well served by the resolution of these
concerns.

Asked whether he felt the issues raised in the presentation were still
current, Pieters said yes.

"Any report that raises systemic issues, any report that impacts upon a
large group of represented officers, based on race, that isn't addressed,
does create a problem. It creates a problem where people feel that their
dignity is infringed upon, that they're not respected, and that the
workplace in some way can be poisoned.

"I think it's the culture -- that's what causes racial profiling to exist."

Boyd said he hadn't yet been made aware of any specific incidents of
racial misconduct stemming from the focus group sessions, but said any
complaints that do come forward will be fully investigated.

He also stressed that many changes have taken place that deal with some
or many of the issues raised.

Boyd said he is hopeful that the officers involved in the incident at the
42 Division gas pump will come to an agreement and resolve the matter.

Fantino said there is still work to be done but took issue with a
suggestion nothing had been done in response to the officers' concerns. He
said his approach was "exemplary" and pointed to the force's track record
on minority hires, the promotion of black officers to specialized squads
and training initiatives set up under his watch, a "great deal" of which
happened as a result of the concerns raised by the black officers.

"We made that happen. We actually transferred people into the homicide
squad," said Fantino. "We made significant improvements. We probably
doubled the minority hires on the police service.

" I, as the chief of the day was very committed, very conscientious and
very much on dealing with those issues," said Fantino. "Is it done, no?
Relationships are always a work in progress."