When Ottawa police use force on the job, Black and Middle Eastern people are still disproportionately likely to be on the receiving end — and the latest statistics show no improvement.
According to a report to the Ottawa Police Service Board released this week, officers used force against 310 people last year. They included 81 whom police perceived as Black.
That’s 26 per cent of the total — a percentage exactly the same as the four-year average — despite the fact that Black people make up just eight per cent of Ottawa’s population.
Police used force against 33 people perceived as Middle Eastern, or 11 per cent of the total. Again, that’s precisely the same percentage as the four-year average. About six per cent of the city’s population is Middle Eastern.
In other words, Black people are more than three times as likely to be the subject of police force than their numbers would suggest, and Middle Eastern people almost two times as likely.
The statistics count “displaying” force as a use of force, even if it isn’t actually applied to a person. An officer could wield their baton without clubbing anyone, for example.
Force was merely displayed in about half of all cases, though Black and Middle Eastern people were relatively more likely to have force applied against them.
‘We need to change course,’ says advocacy group
Hector Addison of the African Canadian Association of Ottawa called the statistics “unacceptable” and “worrisome.” He gets that it will take time for the police force to change, but he views the lack of any improvement as highly concerning.
“Nothing has improved,” he said. “It looks like all the effort we poured in hasn’t yielded any fruit.”
He said the police service has to take corrective measures, possibly including retraining of officers.
“This is clearly not working. We need to change course,” he said. “There needs to be, maybe, a drastic change.”
According to the report, Ottawa police officers get training in crisis management and de-escalation, which is supposed to help them minimize the use of force.
Addison was previously a member of the Ottawa Police Service’s community equity council, a volunteer organization meant to strengthen police relationships with racialized communities.
Young men most frequent subjects of force
Indigenous people were also overrepresented in the statistics, though the discrepancy was lower at roughly 1.5 times their share of the population.
The statistics also include information on gender, age, the reason for the use of force and the kind of force used.
Men made up the overwhelming majority of subjects against whom force was used, while the most frequent age category was people ages 25 to 34.
The most common reasons police cited for using force were to protect themselves, to arrest someone or to protect other officers. Almost half of those against whom they used force were thought to have weapons.
Police officers drew handguns 111 times last year, pointed them at a person 69 times and fired them three times. They deployed a conducted energy weapon 69 times and used aerosol spray 10 times.
Eighteen of the 310 subjects of police force were injured last year. One person died.