Street checks: Greater Sudbury police being trained on racism, diversity

Morning North4:35Sudbury police reviewing new rules around street checks

The practice of street checks has been criticized for being racially biased. We heard Greater Sudbury Police Chief Paul Pedersen's thoughts on the matter. He spoke to the CBC's Samantha Lui.

Greater Sudbury Police are reviewing rules around street checks, also known as carding.

In March, the Ontario government updated regulations that ban police from randomly stopping people to collect personal information.

The practice has been criticized for being racially biased.

However, Sudbury Police Chief Paul Pedersen says issues of race haven't been a problem here in Sudbury.

"We do have diversity up here, but the population isn't high," he said.

"So when we look at who we're talking to, we're talking to people that don't come from the marginalized communities, and therefore we don't see race as the same level of discussion point as maybe in some other communities."

Pedersen said staff are currently being trained on a variety of topics, including racism and discrimination.

Street checks are performed in situations where criminal activity has been reported in a specific area or neighbourhood.

Educate yourself on the rules: chief

Meanwhile, police officers in the community are becoming familiar with new regulations governing street checks.

Pedersen noted the public also needs to be educated about the practice of carding.

"There's misconceptions out there that the public no longer has to give police officers their name. That's just simply not true," he said.

"There are a number of times when the public is obligated to give police their name. I'm concerned that the public's gonna think that they don't have to co-operate with us in situations that they do."

Starting Jan. 1, 2017, police must tell people they have a right not to talk with them, and refusing to co-operate or walking away cannot then be used as reasons to compel information.

However, police can gather personal information during routine traffic stops, when someone is being arrested or detained, or when a search warrant is executed. The new rules will also not apply to police undercover operations.

The Liberal government said it wanted to ban arbitrary stops after hearing from too many people of colour and aboriginal men and women, who said the Human Rights Code was being ignored by police who stopped them for no apparent reason.