With a unanimous nod Thursday, the Toronto Police Services Board approved a new “historic” policy around the mandated collection of race-based data, a move aimed at improving much-eroded trust in some communities.It had been a long time coming, and although it doesn’t go as far or as fast as some would like, it sets a standard for Canadian policing, the board was told.The board approved the much-anticipated policy before a full public gallery, and to applause.Many in the crowd had been leading the charge to mandate the collection of the data and address bias, including Ontario Human Rights Commission chief commissioner Renu Mandhane and commission staff, John Sewell of the Toronto Police Accountability Coalition and Kingsley Gilliam of the Black Action Defense Committee.Afterward, Notisha Massaquoi, co-chair of the anti-racism advisory panel that shaped the policy, said she was exhausted and happy, and “I don’t think people might understand how much work goes in behind the scenes to get to this place. It was a lot of hours of debate, deliberation and compromises.“For me personally, as a member of the Black community in Toronto, I wanted to also honour the legacy of people who’ve been advocating for this for over 30 years.”The panel was formed in the wake of the 2015 fatal police shooting of Andrew Loku, 45, a Black, mentally ill father of five from Sudan.The panel called on the board to approve the policy and implement phase one — noting race in use-of-force incidents — by January 1, and have the chief embark on a pilot project around people self-identifying race, rather than how it will begin, with officers making that call.Police Chief Mark Saunders welcomed the board’s decision and said he would meet all of the policy’s requirements and go one step further and collect race-based data around “Step 3” searches, or strip searches. “This is a pivotal point in the history of ...
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