Race Based Data Collection

Frequently Asked Questions

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• How does the Service define racism? Systemic racism? Officer’s perception? Self-Identification?

  Racism means the ideas, beliefs, or practices that maintain or perpetuate the superiority or dominance of one racial group over another. Racism is different from prejudice in that it is tied to the social, political, economic, and institutional power that is held by the dominant group in society.

  Systemic Racism occurs when institutions or systems create or maintain inequity often as a result of hidden institutional biases in policies, practices and procedures that privilege some groups and disadvantage others. It can take many forms including singling out members of Indigenous, Black and other racialized groups for greater scrutiny or different treatment.

  Officer’s Perception means the individual officer’s perception about another individual’s race, based on observations.

  Self-Identification means the information that is derived from an individual providing their race in response to being asked this information by a Service member, unless it is impractical to do so.

• How is the Service educating/informing the public of this change?

  The TPS has engaged in its own public information campaign. Since October, consultation sessions have been held with each Community Consultative Committee and a group of CPLC representatives. Focus groups have been held with more than 20 community organizations and four public Town Hall Meetings are scheduled to take place before the end of year. A webpage – www.tps.on.ca/race-based-data has also been created.

• What training will be given to Service members?

  The Service’s Equity, Inclusion and Human Rights Team has a group of Subject Matter Experts who have been hired to facilitate the implementation of this initiative, including the development of our training curriculum. This training will consist of online and classroom components that will not only provide technical support but will complement the Service’s past efforts to provide our members with fair and impartial policing.

• What is the TPS going to do with this data?

  The data collected will be anonymized and eventually available on the Service’s Open Data Portal, available to the media and public. The portal contains current and historical calls for service and occurrence data, arrest data, and other key public safety data sets. Through this portal and open data initiative, the Service is committing to greater openness and transparency.

• Will the data collection information be available to the public?

  Yes, in addition to regular public reporting, the data will be made available to the public through the Service’s Open Data Portal by 2021.

• Will the data be disclosed during a court process?

  Like any document created by the TPS, defense counsel could seek the records disclosed as part of a trial and, if the judge determined it was relevant to the case, the records would be released.

• How will the data allow the TPS to make positive changes within the Service?

  We cannot change what we do not measure. The data will be used to identify and to monitor, potential systemic racism within the Toronto Police Service. Through our analysis, we will be able to put action plans in place to address any gaps.

• How will the TPS ensure that the reporting is accurate?

  An independent third-party assessor will be engaged to validate the process. Can individuals ask to be self-identified during this first phase? The first phase of the program is meant to measure perceptions and our own interactions.

• Will TPS be stripping the data of identifiers before it’s published?

  Yes, the data we collect will be anonymized and stripped of identifiers. It will be impossible for the data to be connected to a specific individual.

• How is this different from carding?

  Street checks are an investigative tool while race-based date collection is used to measure systemic trends.