In an effort to improve the equity of police-community interactions, the Mississauga and Brampton police department has announced changes to its advisory committees.
Peel Regional Police declared that the newly established governance and human rights committee would include its diversity and inclusion committee.
The goal of the committee will be to “apply a human rights lens to policing,” the force said.
The revamp comes three years after Peel Regional Police and the Ontario Human Rights Commission inked an agreement to alter how policing in Peel is run.
According to that agreement, a survey’s findings, which depicted a region where locals felt there was a serious need for police reform, were made public at the end of 2021.
The survey, made public at the end of 2021, found 55 per cent of the 1,102 people polled believed Peel Regional Police needed reform.
The results of the poll, which was completed by residents and employees of Peel, also revealed disproportionate policing of the Black community in the area.
Black respondents made up 23% of those stopped or approached by a police officer in Mississauga and Brampton, and 36% of those arrested, according to police encounters broken down by race.
In previous years, the force had also come under fire for the now-banned practice of random street checks.
According to Peel police data, Black people were the subject of 21% of the 159,303 street checks conducted between 2009 and 2014. Black people made up just 9% of the population in Brampton and Mississauga, according to the 2011 census.
In that broader context, the new committee will rely on members and experts to apply its human rights lens to policing.
“As part of developing its mandate and approach, the Committee will retain a third-party academic with expertise in human rights and governance to help re-define the committee’s mandate, review existing Board policies from a human rights perspective,” a Peel police news release said.
Combating anti-Black racism, according to Ron Chatha, chair of the Peel Regional Police Services Board, “cannot be done as a one-time job.
Some residents have yet to be persuaded that Peel Regional Police are prepared to reform, though.
Trust has been lost, according to Black advocate Dave Bosveld, who is running for trustee at the Peel District School Board and has called for change at Peel police.
Given their continued aversion to anything that even somewhat approaches criticism, he added, “If it takes this long to convince them to modify their thinking, we can be delighted with this shift but it’s tough to trust that they know how to deal with the complexities of this situation.”
He pointed out that neither the police’s remedies nor the media release mention Black representation. He said, “That is a significant missing component here.”
Peel police establish a committee to address institutional racism
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