Province accepts recommendation to gather race-based information from police stops

Police across the province might soon be collecting race-based data during routine police stops, part of a package of recommendations based on a report from three years ago that found Black people in Halifax are disproportionately targeted by street checks. 

"It's most certainly going to to hold police accountable when they pull someone over for any reason, they're going to have to, to identify that," said Justice Minister Brad Johns.

"So the accountability and transparency will be there, I think, with the the collection of the data."

This recommendation follows the release in 2019 of the Wortley report, which included 53 recommendations related to a street check ban, the regulation of street checks, data collection on police stops and improving police-community relations.

Street checks, which were banned by the province October of of 2019, are defined in the Wortley report as an instance when an officer interacts with or observes someone and then records personal or identifying information into a database.

Advocates say street checks were performed at random, not just when someone was pulled over during a police stop, and that the race-based data collected from street checks was largely gathered without people's knowledge.

The new system differs in that it will require police officers to formally request the data be given at roadside stops and giving it will be voluntary.

Vanessa Fells, director of operations with the African Nova Scotian Decade for People of African Descent coalition, said the province's acceptance of this recommendation is good news, because the Black community in the province has spoken out numerous times about issues of policing — but there has been a lack of data to back up their experiences.

"That's the data that we need and with that, we'll be able to identify issues. And then we want to be able to work with government to address them," said Fells.

The Wortley report research committee released its report Thursday.

The team dedicated to examining the findings of the Wortley Report is made up of representatives from police, African Nova Scotian community members as well as other government regulated bodies like the justice department and the Nova Scotia Human Rights Commission. It was led by Timothy Bryan, a University of Toronto professor with research expertise in criminal justice reform.

A goal to improve interactions

It recommends that the justice minister mandate the collection of race-based data by police, stating that the information gathered at police stops will identify over-representation when it occurs and help police improve interactions with African Nova Scotian, Indigenous and other racialized Nova Scotians. That would allow for the evaluation of policies and practices and improve transparency and accountability.

Next steps include reviewing the ways police collect data across the province and working with community and police to develop a standardized race-based data collection model.

It's not clear yet when police will actively start collecting race-based data but Johns said ultimately the method depends on community consultation in conjunction with justice and community partners.