Edmonton police respond to Alberta grand chiefs' carding concerns

Edmonton police are taking action after two Alberta grand chiefs warned the practice of carding erodes trust with the aboriginal community and jeopardizes the reconciliation process.

"I can tell you right now I'm looking at reaching out to those two chiefs specifically," said Insp. Dan Jones with the EPS Investigative Support Branch which includes the Aboriginal Relations Unit.

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"Anytime something erodes trust we have to make sure that we don't allow that to erode trust, so we always look at our practices, we always look at best practices," he said.

On Thursday Treaty 6 Grand Chief Tony Alexis said he could not support street checks by police. He was responding to a CBC story highlighting concerns that carding, or recording of personal information including race, during random street stops unfairly singles out indigenous people and members of other racialized groups..

Alexis said even the perception of racial profiling would "undermine any attempt towards reconciliation between the indigenous and non-indigenous peoples."

Grand Chief Steve Courtoreille said carding should not be arbitrary. He urged anyone who believed they had been mistreated to make a formal complaint. Edmonton police Chief Rod Knecht will be invited to an upcoming meeting of the grand chiefs to work through concerns, he said.

Police have insisted carding is not racially motivated and is a valuable investigative tool.

Asked how to explain complaints from critics who say racial profiling is occurring, Jones said "I can't say never," noting there are 1,800 police members in the city.

"What I can say is we train that it is never OK to utilize race as a reason to stop someone," he added.

He said officers receive training in criminal versus racial profiling, bias awareness and cultural safety.

"We train that it is never okay and to be aware of biases and culturally safe in your practices."

Jones said EPS continues to look at how trust can be built in all communities.

"So in relation to that, we are just going to make sure that people are educated on what we're doing and why we're doing it in order to build those trust relationships."

He could not say whether the police chief plans to accept Courtoreille's invitation to attend the upcoming meeting with the grand chiefs.