KAWARTHA LAKES-The number of street checks done by local police has dropped significantly.
It’s unclear exactly how many street checks were done by the Kawartha Lakes Police Service in 2016 because they say they didn’t keep statistics however in 2017 they report doing zero checks. “I look at it from mixed feelings, of course the function of street checks is an important component of policing but the legislation, as it is written makes it virtually impossible for an officer to actually do it or want to do it.” Chief John Hagarty told the Police Services Board at Monday’s meeting.
In March 2017 the province implemented new rules for police “street checks” or “carding” after complaints about minorities being unfairly targeted. The regulations were introduced to ban random and arbitrary stops and increase accountability for the interactions police have with the public.
Kawartha Lakes Mayor Andy Letham questioned the reasoning for the change. “It seems like somebody came up with something that is politically correct but makes no sense.”
Peterborough Police say their officers did a total of 3 “street checks” and 63 “observation checks” in 2017 as opposed to 829 checks 2014 and 828 in 2015. Inspector Larry Charmley says “It has hamstirnged things a little bit, it has cast a shadow over it for officers.”
Cast a shadow because officers are now required to tell people they do not have to talk to police or give them any information. Police must also provide anyone who gives personal information with a receipt showing them how and where to complain about the officer. “It’s like we have to say excuse me sir I’d like to engage in a conversation with you but understand you don’t have to speak with me, you can walk away and if you want to lodge a complaint against me I’m going to give you a form about how to do that.” Hagarty mused. ” So I’m not surprised therese a bunch of zeros in those numbers.”
Some speculate it’s created the FIDO effect. F*** It and Drive On. “The chances of somebody talking to you once we tell them they don’t have to and then we have to tell them they can complain about us and provide the information for them to do it, doesn’t really encourage police officers to go out of their way to ask people for information.” Charmley says.
The violent crime rate in Peterborough has gone up 20% since the new rules went in to place. “You could suggest that it’s gone up because we weren’t doing as many checks. I think what we’ve noticed is the info we used to get from officers has reduced a lot” Charmley says. I understand all the other arguments on the other side and has it made things less safe, probably some, but probably not a lot either.”
Peterborough Police say legal “Street checks” are invaluable to officers in the fight against crime. They point to the case of Steven Yearley as an example.
August 21, 2014 a rookie Peterborough cop stopped to chat with a couple of guys out walking the streets of Peterborough at 4am. The constable didn’t know it at the time but she was talking to Steven Yearley. Yearly was convicted of a violent sexual assault in Huntsville in 2007. The victim was beaten so badly her friends did not recognize her. The rape lasted 15 minutes before the assailant was scared off by someone passing by. Yearley escaped from prison and allegedly went on a violent rampage stealing a Hydro One truck and breaking into a number of residences. He voluntarily chose to serve 100 percent of his sentence to avoid the restrictions of parole. But when he moved back to Peterborough police issued a public safety alert and placed restrictions on Yearley as a dangerous offender. Among them was to obey a curfew from 10 pm to 6 am.
The cop didn’t know who Yearley was because he’d grown his hair. She just saw a couple of guys “walking in a place where there was a number of break and enters recently.” She says it was around 4 am and they seemed to be trying to evade her so she stopped them. She entered the details of the interaction on a contact card in the computer right down to the false name Yearley had given her. The next day one of the detectives was reading the information and recognized the alias and new exactly who it was. Steven Yearley was arrested for breaching this conditions. It was the second time he was charged with breaching conditions. A month before he was found with cocaine according to police.
In 2015 Deputy Chief Tim Farquharson said this is a perfect example of why streets checks or carding works. ” This whole street check thing is part of intelligence lead policing, the proactive and the preventative piece and thats what we are paid to do.”
Read full story here: http://www.vanmeerfreepress.com/peterborough-police-say-street-checks-aka-carding-is-indispensable/
Chief Hagarty says technology along with the new rules surrounding street checks means officers are spending more time in their cruisers and less time interacting with the public.
“We went through a period where we tried to get officers out of their cruisers, to walk the streets and to engage with the people and get on bicycles so there’s not that divide.” Hagarty explained. “It’s getting easier and easier just to sit in the cruiser. The computer terminal is there to a point that I don’t even need to stop the vehicle in front of me, I already know if the driver is licensed and that the tags are current and if there are any wants or warrants for that person before we leave the intersection. Before if something looked suspicious we had to put the lights on and pull them over but with technology there’s less and less of that.”
He says this is one of the times when being in a small community is helpful. “We are in a good position here, small town Ontario where we still have officers that are walking the street, we live in our community, we coach the hockey teams we coach the soccer teams the ball teams we are engaged and part of the community. Our officers know who we are and know who the criminals are and who the non criminal are.”
Even though the number of “street checks” police are doing has gone way down the amount of work has increased according to Charmley. “What we find is where officers see people out of place and hanging around areas where maybe drug trafficking is going on they are no longer collecting the names etc so when we are doing investigations, now especially with people from Toronto area, we are having to do a lot more investigative process to try to figure out who those people are, a lot more surveillance, to get them connected to licence plates. So it is causing us a bit more work for sure.”
When asked if it has made us less safe Charmley said “I think you can draw that conclusion.”
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