Hamilton police fired their guns 19 times in 2021 to kill injured animals

Every time a Hamilton police officer pulled the trigger in 2021, it was to kill an already wounded animal, according to new a use of force report published by the service.

According to the report, Hamilton cops fired their guns 19 times last year, down from 27 times in 2020, representing a 30 per cent decrease. It is also the fewest number of times police fired their guns in the last five years.

Of those 27 incidents in 2020, 25 were to euthanize injured animals.

Overall, use of force incidents - which range from officers drawing their guns, to the use of conducted energy weapons (Tasers) and empty-hand strikes - was down in 2021. Officers filed 361 use of force reports, down from 431 last year. However, that number is still well above the lowest rate in the last decade, which was 238 reported incidents in 2011.

No one from the Hamilton Police Service was available to discuss the report Friday, which is scheduled to be presented to Hamilton's police services board on Thursday afternoon.

While the number of total incidents declined year-over-year, those incidents were heavily focused in lower income neighbourhoods.

According to the report, which breaks down incidents by postal code, most took place in the lower city, with neighbourhoods in the L8L postal code having the most occurrences.

That area has a median annual household income of $45,000, according to Statistics Canada. The communities in the immediate surrounding postal code areas, with annual incomes ranging from $37,000 to $53,000, also saw high numbers of incidents.

By comparison, the city's wealthiest neighbourhoods around Ancaster - found in L9K and L9G postal codes - with annual incomes of $114,000 and higher, had the fewest recorded incidents of police using force.

While the number of times police officers fired their guns dropped in 2021, the number of times they used their Tasers rose slightly, from 139 incidents in 2020 to 145. However, 80 of those incidents saw officers unholster their Taser without firing it.

The report also points to a correlation between the number of times police use force and the experience of officers involved.

More than 55 per cent of the reported incidents involved officers with five or less years experience as police officers. Typically, more inexperienced officers are assigned to uniform patrol duties - where the report says most incidents happen - than plain clothes detective positions which are given to more seasoned officers.

The majority of incidents during which officers used force involved a suspect with a weapon, according to the report's data.

Suspects with guns accounted for 110 of those incidents, up from 81 the year before. Knives were the weapons used by suspects in 106 incidents in 2021, up from 92 in 2020.

With the decline in overall incidents also came a drop in reported injuries during those incidents. Police report an officer or suspect was injured 71 times last year during use of force incidents, compared to 140 in 2020. Of the 71 incidents in 2020, 44 of them were for the removal the TASER darts embedded into the skin of a suspect when the weapon is fired.

The police collect statistics related to race and use of force, but some incidents are counted multiple times and The Spectator has yet to fully analyze the data.

Grant LaFleche is an investigative reporter with The Spectator. Reach him via email: glafleche@torstar.ca