Police Carding Essay

Carding is the practice in which the police gather contact cards through random police checks in an attempt to collect information about individuals that are stopped and questioned. This information is stored in a program that helps the police identify individuals who are suspected of criminal activity by referring back to their whereabouts, who they were accompanied by, and personal information at the time they were carded. Many Torontonians are familiar with this practice as they have personally been involved in the process, witnessed it in their communities or learned about it through media’s increased coverage of the practice. Recently the Toronto Police has come under a lot of scrutiny over allegations of racial profiling, primarily of
young black men through the practice of carding. The Toronto Police are denying these allegations, however a study compromising of a closer examination of the demographics of these contact cards conducted by the Toronto Star, reveal that young black men have been disproportionally carded than any other racial groups despite making up a small percentage of the city population. Consequently, this has led to debates over whether Ontario should ban the practice over these allegations or allow the police to carry out the practice, which they claim aids them in their investigations. After analyzing the data provided by Toronto Star, it can be argued that Ontario should ban the practice of carding as it appears to be a discriminatory process which misrepresents marginalized groups and creates systematic barriers of achieving true equality through the criminal justice system. The Toronto Police Board denied the accusations of racial profiling through the practice of carding, instead they argue that carding is an important “tool” which helps them with investigations.
An article by the Toronto Star stated that “police have cited cases where contact cards helped close homicide cases, and investigators value a database that makes connections...” (Rankin and Winsa). Many police officers justify the practice of carding as a useful method to acquire justice, protect society, and argue that it allows to helps make connections between crimes and people through a carding program they utilize. Furthermore, in analyzing the controversy of the Toronto Stars findings about the Toronto police records, Ron Melchers stated that, “Complete information, the star reported, was not available in every instance, and the analysis excluded those cases where specific information is missing” (349). Essentially, the data the Toronto Star acquired was not completely used since portions of data that help lay their claim was most prominent in their findings. Although, the data’s presentation by The Toronto Star was construed to help notice the evident racial profiling, it still effectively portrays the relation between the racial background to the people who were carded. The racial profiling of particular groups in society is a problematic issue as it does not reflect the whole population, but rather is more concentrated on criminal behavior in one specific
group.
The discouragement or alternation of the practice is strongly backed up by people that hold a legal position within the criminal justice system and by moral entrepreneurs that see the correlation between carding and the over representation of African Canadians in the legal system.
According to an article regarding a police board meeting advising to change the carding policies, a Toronto resident argued that Toronto, “continue[s] to suffer increasing numbers of our black youth being singled out and questioned by police for no justifiable legal reason” (Winsa and Rankin). The carding polices did not require legal ground or justification of any suspicious behavior to interrogate people and place them in a system that stores their personal information. Although there has been some improvement and changes to the policies of carding, it is still evident that black men are still disproportionally represented. As long as the police have more discretion in their actions within the legal framework of this practice, it allows for a more probable chance of biases and racial profiling. Moral entrepreneurs, such as the Black Action Defence Committee are taking a proactive role in addressing the issues of carding and are demanding restitution for the injustice they have faced from Toronto police. According to an article by the Toronto Star. “A proposed class-action lawsuit seeks $65 million in damages and other remedies from Toronto police for alleged racial profiling practices and
documenting of citizens” (Rankin and Winsa). The discriminatory practice of racial profiling by the Toronto Police has angered the group and they are suing the board based on the violation of equality rights. These banning of the practice or at least modifications in the policy will discourage racial profiling by taking away the discretion police officers hold. These changes need to accommodate policies that will only allow carding on legal and justifiable suspicion.
The criminal justice system being the source of agencies that respond to criminal activity and alleged criminal offenders has important application to maintaining justice within society. In most cases, police officers are the interactive members of the criminal justice system who people are most likely to deal with people. Therefore, police officer’s behavior reflects the institution that not only protects society, but uphold equality and justice for all. These patterns of over-representation of visible minorities hints at a systematic issue within the criminal justice system which can be easily associated with racial profiling. According to a study by on racial profiling of black youth in Toronto suggests that “police negatively associate minority race and criminality, which in turn generates distrust of the police among Black youth, contributing to the deterioration in their relationship” (Meng, Giwa and Anucha 117). Essentially, this creates an inherent mistrust between black youth and the police, which can have severe implications as it discourages black males to collaborate with the police and creates a stigma of black youth’s involvement of crime, which is usually perpetuated through stereotypes.
These stereotypes often lead to police patrolling certain disadvantaged neighborhoods that have a higher concentration of black people, which further adds to the overrepresentation of young black males. In addition, these men are also targeted in wealthier neighborhoods based on stereotypes of black youth being part of a lower socio-economic class and therefore police assuming a connection to criminal activity (Meng, Giwa and Anucha 118). According to an article by the Toronto Star, TAVIS (Toronto Anti-Violence Intervention Strategy) unit has noticeably been criticized by many for their “highest degree of carding of blacks”. TAVIS is intended to be a community- strategized approached to dealing with people in disadvantaged neighborhoods with high levels of violence, however this disproportionate representation of black people through carding only increases the mistrust between the police and the community (Winsa and Rankin). The racial profiling of groups creates barriers between the criminal justice system and visible minorities, through mistrust and discourages visible minorities to seek out help or collaborate with the institution. In summary, carding is a discriminatory practice that allows police officers to racially profile visible minorities based on preconceived biases or stereotypical views. The investigation carried out by The Toronto Star, effectively demonstrates the key problamatic issues with the practice of carding and the inequity it creates within the institution of the criminal justice system. The policies on carding need to be reconsidered to restrict the discretion of police officers when it come to the practice or banning the practice altogether. The practice of carding also creates mistrust between certain groups, which puts limitations on police orientated community involvement and discourages certain groups from accessing the resources available through the criminal justice system.