General occurrence report data highlights systemic racism in B.C. policing

Policing in B.C. is and always has been racist. Here’s some information from an FOI request for six years of data that shows systemic racism in all police interactions (e.g. vehicle stops, who police consider a “suspect,” etc.), across all of B.C.’s municipal police departments.

The dataset includes 11 municipal police departments’ 2016-21 “ethnicity” statistics for the general occurrence report roles they assign people (e.g. “Suspect”) and Vancouver Police Department (VPD) “sex” and district info. VPD says ethnicity data is based on officer perception or people’s self-disclosure. The summary statistics on this page exclude “unknown” data, but the full dataset is available at the bottom of this post. Any data highlighted below for one department is also available for all other departments.

The data show, for example, that while Black people make up 1% of Vancouver’s population, Black people are 2.8% of “drivers” and 4.1% of “passengers” in VPD’s reports. VPD disproportionately interacts with Black people in vehicle stops. Black men are 3.1 and 6.6 times as likely as white men to be listed as a driver or passenger.

In West Vancouver, Black people are 8.2 and 15.7 times as likely as white people to be listed as a “driver” or a “passenger.” VPD and West Vancouver PD also target Hispanic, Middle Eastern and South Asian drivers. I believe these figures exclude folks who are charged, where the role would shift to “charged.”

West Vancouver PD “driver” and “passenger” data.

The number of times VPD assigned people its street check “role” fell to almost zero in 2021 (other years don’t show all street checks), but did the number of interactions or planned interactions change? For example, the number of people VPD listed as “Of Interest” rose at the same time.

VPD street check and “Of Interest” role data.

Police also disproportionately include Black and Indigenous people in reports as “pedestrians” and in their miscellaneous “other” category. 3.1% of people VPD assigned its “other” role description were Black (3 times population) and 13.9% were Indigenous (5.9 times population).

VicPD, VPD and West Vancouver PD “Other” and “Pedestrian” data.

The VPD data further breaks down the information by “sex.” Twenty-five percent of women VPD listed as charged were Indigenous (10.4 times population). VPD reports are nine times as likely to list Indigenous women as “charged” or to have VPD recommend charges as white women, and 11 times as likely to list Indigenous women as “chargeable” (no recommendation), suggesting arrests.

VPD “Charged,” “Recommend Charges,” and “Suspect Chargeable” data.

Police have no place in mental health response, but city councils give them millions to do so. VicPD used guns to threaten at least 19 people in distress in 2020, for example, and policing mental health disproportionately targets BIPOC people in crisis. B.C.’s Human Rights Commissioner also published data and analysis on the over-representation of BIPOC people in policing mental health.

VicPD and VPD’s data on policing people in crisis. They use the phrase “Emotionally Disturbed Person.”

The criminalization of BIPOC kids is reflected in this data, too. For example, Black and Middle Eastern kids are approximately 10 times as likely to be listed in Delta PD reports as “charged” as white kids. Municipalities pay police to put officers in schools where they replicate these harms.

Policing youth data from Central Saanich PD, Delta PD, and New Westminster PD.

Data also show people calling police on BIPOC people. In Port Moody, Black people are nearly 5 times as likely as white people to be a “subject of complaint”; in Oak Bay Black people are 7.8 times as likely as white people to be a “subject of complaint.” Indigenous people are 2.4% of Vancouver’s population, but were 18.8% of the “subjects of complaint.”

“Subject of Complaint” data for Oak Bay PD, Port Moody PD, and Saanich PD.

BIPOC people are disproportionately homeless, and many of these statistics intersect with governments choosing to leave folks in poverty and homelessness, and to then target them with police instead of cutting police budgets to fund housing and services. See analysis by Stanley Q. Woodvine on the intersection of race, homelessness and street checks in the Georgia Straight here.

The data also show BIPOC people, including BIPOC youth, are disproportionately listed as missing persons and victims of crime. In Saanich PD’s reports, Black people were 5.5% of missing persons (1% population); Hispanic people were 2.4% (0.7% population); and Indigenous people were 19.1% of missing persons (3.1% population).

Saanich PD, VicPD and VPD data for “Missing Person,” “Victim” and “Youth-Victim.”

This data is available below but none of this reveals anything that BIPOC people haven’t already said. Policing in B.C. was always racist, irreformable, and irredeemable, and every dollar spent on policing in B.C. is spent with that knowledge. In the VicPD context, for example, see VIPIRG 2012, SOLID 2015, and Michael Regis 2017/18. B.C.’s Human Rights Commissioner also talks about arrest data and policing mental health.

Policing in B.C. profiles, targets, arrests, and kills Indigenous and Black people. That won’t change with millions spent bodycams, “community policing,” and diversity initiatives. It only ends by abolishing the police.

Download general occurrence report ethnicity data, B.C. municipal police departments, 2016-2021. Spreadsheet includes summary data for all departments; individual pivot tables for each department; a page with all pivot tables; census information; and some information on “role descriptions.” Worksheets beyond the first may only work in Excel. The above spreadsheet should be easiest to use for most people; however, unmodified data as released by the police departments is also available here: Abbotsford PD; Central Saanich PD; Delta PD; Nelson PD; New Westminster PD; Oak Bay PD; Port Moody PD; Saanich PD; Vancouver PD (2016-17); Vancouver PD (2018-21); Victoria and Esquimalt PD; West Vancouver PD.