Tracking race when officers use force 'bare minimum' Winnipeg police should do, expert says
CBC
Jordan Charlie, a 24-year-old Inuk, was the fourth person police have shot and killed in Winnipeg this year — but he's the only one whose race is publicly known, and that's a problem, a criminologist says.
Kevin Walby says the Winnipeg Police Service should track and publicly release data about race in all police use-of-force interactions.
"It's the bare minimum any police service can do," said Walby, a criminology professor at the University of Winnipeg.
While some Canadian police services collect and publish data on racial identities when they use force, Winnipeg police neither tracks nor shares such data. Critics say this damages trust with racialized communities and hinders oversight.
Charlie, who was from Nunavut, was shot and killed in the parking lot of the Unicity Shopping Centre on Nov. 24.
WATCH | Nunavut man shot by Winnipeg police was in 'really sad' situation, judge said days before his death:
It was the fourth lethal police shooting in 2024, according to a CBC analysis of Independent Investigation Unit of Manitoba news releases, but the race of the people killed is not tracked.
Race-based use of force data is important because it "sets the scene" for understanding what's really happening with policing, Walby said.
Not tracking the data means police control the narrative about how they operate, he said.
A lack of data can also damage the reputation of the police and the trust people have in the service, he said.
Walby wants the province to require police to track racial data in use-of-force cases and make it available to the Winnipeg police internal investigation unit, the service's main oversight body. The data should also be open and accessible to the public, he said.
Daniel Hidalgo, founder of CommUnity204, which helps support marginalized and homeless people, said there isn't enough police accountability and transparency when it comes to interactions with racialized communities.
"There's a disconnect, and I think if we kept that data … it would mitigate some of the differences between public and police perspectives," Hidalgo said on Friday.
The data could start a conversation about policing biases towards racialized groups, he said.
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