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At today’s meeting of the Board of Police Commissioners, Halifax Regional Police (HRP) will update the Board on its next steps related to street checks.
Our next steps, which are in various stages of implementation, include conducting a privacy impact assessment, continuing with the robust analysis of street check data, delivering training, and developing education related to citizen’s rights when interacting with police.
“The actions we’re taking will improve our street check practices, citizens’ experiences with police and our service to our communities. In determining these next steps, we considered a number of factors, including the results of our preliminary analysis and feedback from our community,” says Chief Jean-Michel Blais.
HRP will undertake a privacy impact assessment (PIA) and policy review regarding its street checks. Independent of the PIA, HRP management believes that its retention practice for street check records is too long and will determine applicable policy around the same.
Dr. Chris Giacomantonio will lead the continuation of an analysis of our street check data together with an independent researcher to be decided upon with the Nova Scotia Human Rights Commission. The focus of this study will be on understanding the racial disproportionality in the data and the effectiveness of street checks in combatting crime.
As part of the annual training of all officers, HRP will deliver a fair and impartial policing module in 2018. Also, HRP will explore the development of procedural justice training.
Through continuing discussions with community stakeholders, HRP will develop community education related to citizen’s rights during interactions with police.
In addition to these efforts, HRP will work to improve the quality of the information it records as a street check through enhanced quality assurance measures.
In January, HRP released findings of a preliminary analysis of its street check data for 2005-2016. At the time the preliminary analysis was released, HRP committed to a robust analysis of its street check data, to reach out to our communities in so doing, and to decide upon next steps based on this work.