Waterloo Regional Police searches Black, Middle Eastern people more often than others

Waterloo Regional Police

According to a Waterloo Regional Police Service (WRPS) report Black and Middle Eastern people were more than twice as likely to be searched in the region while in custody compared to the regions population.

A WRPS departmental manager Amanda Williams says that they are now trying to find the reason why this is so.

The method WRPS is using compares the search incidents against Black people to the incidents against white, for example, without taking into account that Black people account for 4.7 percent of the population and white for 70.3 per cent.

Les Jacobs of Ontario Tech University said that the police’s disparity calculation is a useful step, but doesn’t answer all questions.

“In my view it moves us forward at getting to why, but it doesn’t answer the why,” Jacobs said.

Amanda Williams

“I know what they mean from a police operational standpoint, because that’s the lens I have,” Williams added. “But I don’t really know what they mean from a community standpoint, and that’s what we’re looking to work towards.”

“The community, police officers say we’re not quite happy with the stories that we’re hearing, and so now what we’re doing is … we’re collecting the data to help understand the community story.”

WRPS say that they’re planning for a community engagement component, with a strategy that’s launching in the summer, which they hope will offer more insight.