Black people face ‘gross over-representation’ in Hamilton police’s use of force, data shows

A “gross over-representation.”

That’s the term Hamilton Police Service (HPS) uses to describe how often black people in the city experience violence from police officers, compared to the size of the local black population.

The comment is part of HPS’s latest annual report use of force reportwhich provides a statistical overview of how police used force in 2022.

The report, which will be discussed at an HPS board meeting Thursday, says black people were on the receiving end of 17.2 percent of all incidents of violence by 2022, despite representing just five percent of Hamilton’s population.

The report says that “use of force” refers to multiple scenarios, including a firearm drawn, aimed, or fired, the use of a baton, pepper spray, or taser, or physical force that resulted in an injury requiring medical attention.

The inclusion of race-based data began in 2020, as part of a provincial mandate, but this year’s release appears to be the first time the report has included an analysis that examines how over-represented some populations are when it comes to those who experience the use of force by the police.

East and Southeast Asian people faced “grossly over-representation” when it came to the use of force during arrests and detentions, while Black and Middle Eastern people were also “over-represented” in the same category.

“What we don’t know at this point is what internal and external factors are driving these differences,” Chief Frank Bergen said in a press releaseadding the service is “committed to sitting at the table to understand and address these interactions.”

He said understanding the numbers requires an approach involving community leaders, academics, data experts and government agencies.

Meanwhile, some community groups say the differences are a result of discrimination.

“It’s very disturbing,” said Koubra Haggar, Hamilton Center for Civic Inclusion program manager.

White people experienced the highest number of violent incidents, representing 333 of the 483 individuals identified in the use of violence reports. That’s 68.8 percent of all violent incidents for a group that makes up 74.4 percent of Hamilton’s population.

There are limitations to the data collection process, including that agents must record people’s race based on their perception of the person’s race, and can only record the first three subjects involved in a situation.

They have no option to mark someone’s race as ‘unknown’.

The 2022 statistics come as the number of hate incidents and hate-related offenses reported to the police is higher than it has been since at least 2012.

When it comes to hate crimes, Black, Jewish, and LGBTQ-identifying people were the most common targets.

That means black people are the most common victims of hate in Hamilton, while also being the most over-represented group of people when it comes to police use of force.

CBC Hamilton asked police for an interview about the use of force data ahead of Thursday’s board meeting, but received no response before publication.

Statistics reflect the experience of the community: advocates

Lyndon George, executive director of the Hamilton Anti-Racism Resource Center, said the statistics “show and reflect the experience of black communities in Hamilton when it comes to policing.”

“This continued systematic use of violence in policing, particularly from the black community, is not new.”

Haggar echoed those comments, pointing to recent instances of violence against racialized people.

For example, last May acting Sgt. Brian Wren kicked and stomped the head of a Native man about 13 times during an arrest.

Wren pleaded guilty to assault.

Haggar and Ameil Joseph, an associate professor in the School of Social Work at McMaster University, both said the report should have highlighted how systemic racism in institutions, such as police, plays a role in the over-representation of groups when it comes to using in force.

Joseph also said police should release this year’s raw data as they did in 2020 following requests from community advocates, which would allow for deeper analysis.

Without it, he said, the analysis could lead people to think overrepresented groups are “more dangerous” and not take systemic issues into account.

CBC Hamilton asked police if it was releasing this year’s raw data, but received no response prior to publication. The police shared the raw data online on Wednesday afternoon.

Haggar said the reported statistics should also break down how many incidents of violence occur against young people.

George said the conversation about solutions needs to go beyond better training and better recruiting.

He said it should focus more on holding officers accountable for using disproportionate force.

The use of violence is higher than last year

Police say there were 409 reports of violence in 2022, which is within the average between 2018 and 2022, but is a jump from the 361 incidents of violence in 2021.

Of the 409 reports of violence, 23 involved animals.

The 386 reports of violence against people represent less than one percent of all contacts police had with the public, police said.

Police say officers fired their guns 26 times, three of them at people, aimed 163 times and drew 108 times, the latest being a record since 2018.

There were 32 reports of police beating “offensive” people and 50 reports of police applying “joint locks” to people in 2022, both record highs since 2018, according to the data.

Gun calls made up about 38 percent of calls involving the use of force.

General patrol officers were involved in about 62 percent of all violent incidents, the data shows. Half of all violent incidents involved officers who had been with the police for five years or less.

About 37 percent of the time, police used force against people without weapons, leading to 178 reports.

Officers reported not knowing if someone had a gun 114 times, about 23 percent of the time.

The rest of the time, according to the police, the person had access to a weapon, was carrying a weapon, or the police had information that the person might have a weapon.

Most violent incidents took place in the core of the city, the data shows.

For more stories about the experiences of Black Canadians – from anti-Black racism to success stories within the Black community – check out Being Black in Canada, a CBC project that Black Canadians can be proud of. You can read more stories here.