The way Waterloo regional police calculate race-based data raises concerns among crime researchers

The way the Waterloo Region Police Service (WRPS) in Ontario is now measuring racial inequalities in policing is raising concerns among some crime researchers.

CBC Kitchener-Waterloo spoke to four people with expertise in criminology and law enforcement who expressed concerns the WRPS is using methods that are improper, inaccurate and may set a problematic precedent.

Earlier this month, WRPS announced it was making changes to how it analyzes the race-based data it collects, de-emphasizing a system it's used since 2018. 

Under the Ontario Anti-Racism Act, all police services in the province are required to collect, analyze and report race-based data in order to address systemic racism in law enforcement. Under the act, both the old and the new systems, called "racial disproportions" and "racial disparities," respectively, are legitimate measures if calculated accurately. 

However, those who spoke to CBC explained they have two problems with the changes being made by Waterloo regional police: 

"The way the statistics are being presented, it has the potential or the likelihood to misrepresent the true degree of racial disparity or racial disproportionality facing primarily the Black community in Kitchener-Waterloo," said Deep Sidhu, a University of Waterloo PhD candidate in the sociology and legal studies department.

Sidhu has also worked as a research assistant for Ontario's police watchdog, the Special Investigations Unit, and done the statistical work for a race-based data analysis report for that group.

He said he's concerned about the "troubling precedent" this method could set if other police services use WRPS' method.

"If they adopt something along this line, along what [WRPS] did here, it has the potential to potentially undermine police reform in the area of use of force, police reform in the area of systemic discrimination within policing," he said.     

Amanda Williams, manager of the WRPS strategic services branch, presented the service's race-centred analysis report for 2022 at a police services board meeting on March 15. 

The report contained data on racial disparities in policing interactions including intelligence notes and use of force: pointing of a handgun, restraining a suspect and use of a police baton, among others.

She also outlined the change in race-based data analysis and explained Waterloo regional police consulted with two public policy experts to develop their new methods. One was Lorne Foster, a York University professor in its school of public policy and administration. 

Using the old system, Black people were about three times more likely to experience use of force compared to the overall population in 2022 (a disproportion ratio of 3.04). Using census data, Black people were over three times more likely to experience use of force compared to the white population in the region in 2022 (a disparity ratio of 3.13). 

When it comes to overall use of force, WRPS's new system found the disparity ratio between the Black and white populations is 0.20, compared to 3.13 disparity ratio above if census data were used.