3/31/05 Toronto Star A01 2005 WLNR 5005125
Toronto Star Copyright 2005 Toronto Star Newspapers Limited, All Rights Reserved. March 31, 2005
Section: News
Philip Mascoll and Jim Rankin
Toronto Star
News
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.
Insp. 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."
Staff Insp. Karl Davis, from left, and Insp. David McLeodwere two of four senior black officers who presented the findings ofa candid staff meeting on race to then chief Julian Fantino.
---- INDEX REFERENCES ----
NEWS SUBJECT: (Judicial (1JU36); Legal (1LE33); Race Relations (1RA49); Social Issues (1SO05); Police (1PO98); Minority & Ethnic Groups (1MI43))
REGION: (Americas (1AM92); North America (1NO39); Canada (1CA33))
Language: EN
OTHER INDEXING: (BICK COLLEGE; INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF CHIEFS OF POLICE; ONTARIO ASSOCIATION OF CHIEFS OF POLICE; SCARBOROUGH; STAR; SUPREME COURT; TORONTO; TORONTO POLICE ASSOCIATION; TORONTO POLICE SERVICE) (Boyd; Dave Wilson; David McLeod; Fantino; Forde; Inspector McLeod; Julian Fantino; Karl Davis; Keith Forde, Supt.; McLeod; Mike Boyd; Racial; Pieters; Professional Standards; Selwyn Pieters; Supt)
EDITION: MET
Word Count: 2782 3/31/05 TRNTST A01