Hamilton police use of force remains disproportionate with Black and Middle Eastern people, data shows

Black and Middle Eastern people in Hamilton continue to be overrepresented in use-of-force incidents recorded by the Ontario city's police service.

The statistics, which were submitted to the police board on Thursday, mark the fifth straight year that Black individuals are disproportionately represented.

The inclusion of race-based data started being published in 2020 as part of an Ontario government mandate, to expose any racial biases or stereotyping within police services. When force is used, police report the person's race based on their perception of their race.

Kojo Damptey, a McMaster University sessional instructor and PhD student, and colleagues examine use-of-force data from across Ontario.

In the case of Hamilton police, community members have been expressing concern about disproportionate use of force even before police have been publishing the data, said Damptey.

"Every year, the results are the same, but we never get any changes."

Damptey spoke to CBC Hamilton following a session last week at the David Braley Centre downtown, but before the police board meeting Thursday. 

At the session June 17, Staff Sgt. Ryan Hashimoto acknowledged the history of community concerns.

"These patterns are not new and neither are the calls for action." 

In 2023, he said, "it became increasingly clear that reporting data wasn't enough. We needed to do more with what it was that we were learning."

Hashimoto pointed to the work of the police's Community Advisory Panel as a step in the right direction.

The 10-member panel formed in 2024 in an effort to promote equity and address systemic racism in policing. It makes non-binding recommendations to Hamilton police, and has reviewed police data and practices such as the use-of-force training given to officers

CBC Hamilton asked police for examples of actions the service has taken as a result of learning from race-based data. In an email, spokesperson Jackie Penman said that once police have analyzed the data, they'll "engage with the community" before eventually creating recommendations.

"When there's a problem, there should be a list of actions," Damptey said, adding recommendations alone — which police can choose not to implement — aren't good enough.