By Scott Roblin

Police street check practice causing debate across Alberta

Aug 29, 2017 | 5:04 PM

MEDICINE HAT, AB – Police street checks are in the spotlight this week, with the province launching a full review of the controversial police practice.

Street checks or ‘carding’ as it’s often known as, is the practice of officers stopping law-abiding people on the street, asking questions, and collecting information.

On Thursday, the province announced a new community consultation program, which will feature surveys being mailed to around 100 community groups, law organizations, special interest groups, and victim service agencies.

In the survey, questions will be focused on the act of street checks, how personal information is gathered by police, as well as training police undergo.

This comes after ‘Black Lives Edmonton’ voiced concerns about the program, releasing data from Edmonton Police between 2012 and 2016 showing Aboriginal and black citizens being carded at a much higher rate than white Edmontonians.

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Medicine Hat Police Chief Andy McGrogan has been following the consultation closely, as he serves as president of the Alberta Association of Chiefs of Police.

He said the AACP is open to discussing the topic further with both the Justice Ministry and people across the province.

“We’re well aware that this was coming and we support it for the most part,” said McGrogan. “We support public consultation, I mean Albertans should have a right to have a say about things that are important like this.”

In Medicine Hat, it’s estimated one or two citizens are ‘street checked’ per day, with 85% of those cases involving white males.

McGrogan said while he understands the privacy concerns with street checks, they shouldn’t be an issue for law-abiding citizens.

“If I was walking down the street and I wasn’t doing anything wrong, and a police officer asked me who I was and where I was going, I would just tell him,” he said. “Because, I have nothing to hide and I’m transparent. As a citizen in this community that’s my view, but I can’t speak for every citizen in the community.”

“We’re just trying to keep Albertans safe, that’s our job,” McGrogan said. “We’re not a special interest group, we’ve been hired by our respective communities to keep these communities safe. And, one of the things for us that is a great tool for us is street checks.”

Street checking has been a controversial issue across Canada over the last year, with the Ontario government banning the practice at the beginning of 2017.

Justice Minister Kathleen Ganley said local police departments still need the ability to connect with members of the public.

“What we don’t want to stop is the ability of the police to interact with anyone who is not detained, because that’s the basis of community policing.”

According to co-chair of Black Lives Matter Edmonton Bashir Mohamed, the main issue lies with the perceived surveillance and ID gathering aspects of carding.

“We still want police to talk to people, we still want them to do community engagement,” said Mohamed. “In fact we’re not opposed to that. What we’re opposed to is this piece of arbitrary collection of their information.”

Many of the street checks are performed in areas of high crime, something McGrogan said helps police be pro-active in their investigations.

“We are not an occupying force, we are all residents in the same communities that we police,” McGrogan said. “So, we want to be able to engage the community as the neighbours we are. Figure out what’s going on, gather information, and hopefully solve crime down the road.”

The consultation process will run for around six weeks, at which time the province will decide if guidelines surrounding street checks need to be implemented.