Since 2020 the Hamilton Police Service (HPS) has been tracking the race and identity of people involved in use-of-force incidents to expose any racial biases or stereotyping within police services.

After three years of collecting the data, the Ontario Association of Chiefs of Police now acknowledges that there is a need to reconcile the data collection requirement and a strategy the police services need in order to make “sustainable progress” against eliminating systemic racism in Ontario.

To that end, the Hamilton Police Service says it will be inviting racialized groups to be involved in a new strategy for the data collection as a way to rebuild trust and improve the process.

Hamilton police Chief Frank Bergen said the service’s strategy will include an internal project team and a community advisory panel.

The panel will “provide lived experience, insight, and civilian perspective” and be composed of leaders “representing diverse racialized groups,” according to an information report presented to the board. The panel will work with the project team to create and implement “a roadmap of activities and outcomes,” the report said.

The report says HPS plans to open applications for the panel in late January, close submissions at the end of February and select members in the middle of March.

The aim is the project is to better serve the community, and reduce disparities and disproportionalities between racial groups. Most of the work in the first quarter of the year will focus on governance and terms of reference for the two teams.

Data released in 2023 showed Black people in Hamilton faced a “gross over-representation” among people police officers used force on, prompting advocates to call for immediate action — especially after HPS said the over-representation wasn’t necessarily discrimination.

In addition to the “gross over-representation” of Black people in HPS’s use of force, East and Southeast Asian people faced “gross over-representation” when it came to the use of force during arrests and apprehensions, while Black and Middle Eastern people were also “over-represented” in the same category.

Dr. Anjali Menezes, who sits on the police board, found common ground with Bergen in voicing concerns about the limitations after reading through the province’s technical report.

The hope is that this new approach to data collection and how to put it to use may herald a new beginning in the relationship between the Hamilton police and minority communites.

  Hamilton