Additional Hamilton police use-of-force data ‘not reliable’: HCCI director

In an unprecedented move last week, Hamilton police released a stockpile of raw, unfiltered use-of-force data amid calls from the community for more transparency.

But critics say the fresh data still isn't enough.

This data set is not reliable at all," said Kojo Damptey, executive director of the Hamilton Centre for Civic Inclusion. It's unclear, it's inconsistent. You can't glean anything from it."

The new use-of-force data breaks down in greater detail the 431 incidents where police deployed force in 2020 - a decade-high number.

It individually tables where incidents occurred, which units responded, how calls originated, the behaviour or weapons carried by subjects, the perceived races of subjects and the specific types of force used.

While the data provides more insight than police's general annual report, Damptey said it lacks in clarity.

For instance, it doesn't include how many officers responded to an incident or how many officers used forced. It also doesn't make clear whether multiple officers or just one officer filed the mandated report that's required any time after police use force.

Damptey said the absence of the latter makes it especially difficult to discern if there are redundancies between incidents in the data set.

Am I looking at one incident or separate incidents? Is that one police officer (who filed the incident report) or multiple?" said Damptey, who raised his concerns at a police services board meeting Thursday. They could be the same incident, but they are in different (data) cells."

Damptey further took issue with a column in the data that lists subjects' perceived" races, which he said renders the report misleading and inconclusive.

Is the subject Black? Hispanic? White? Which is it?" he said. We have to be sure who force is being used against."

Officers thought 18 per cent of individuals involved in use-of-force incidents last year were Black, compared to 66 per cent white. But when you consider that Black residents made up less than four per cent of the city population in the last census, compared to 82 per cent white residents, it shows a troubling trend around racial disparity," said Damptey.

This is why we need use-of-force data that is consistent and reliable, to hold police accountable for racial profiling."

In an interview, acting deputy chief Paul Hamilton said the perceived race column in the data is in line with the guidelines set out by the province.

We don't have any leeway with that," he said. Officers are not allowed to ask or use any other means to identify the person's race other than the information they have been given or have witnessed."

On the issue of incident redundancies in the data set, Hamilton acknowledged it could come off as confusing.

He said only one unit in the service - the emergency response unit - files use-of-force reports as a collective team. Uniform patrol officers, meanwhile, are required to file individual reports, even if it's with respect to the same incident.

Chief Bergen's goal is to be more transparent, and this is the first opportunity we've had to release this data," said Hamilton. Based on input from the community, we're going to listen and try to be as transparent as we can and provide (more) information so these incidents are clearer."

Sebastian Bron is a Hamilton-based reporter at The Spectator. Reach him via email: sbron@thespec.com