Four Years of Data and What Has Been Done? Hamilton Police are harmful, divisive and performative in their response to Anti-Black Hate
On Thursday June 27, 2024, Community Researcher Kojo Damptey delegated twice to the Hamilton Police Services Board (HPS). First was his deeply informative presentation in response to multi-year data demonstrating disproportionate police presence, use of force and over-policing of Black communities. Mr Damptey’s presentations start at 31:15. We encourage you to watch in its entirety including the time allotted for questions after. https://pub-hpsb.escribemeetings.com/Players/ISIStandAlonePlayer.aspx?Id=80455de2-9598-4862-9dac-41d8f37d8615
The presentation slides can be found here: Use of Force Data Analysis by Kojo Damptey https://pub-hpsb.escribemeetings.com/FileStream.ashx?DocumentId=5264
Mr. Damptey also delegated about problems with, and harm caused by HPS’s Hate Crimes Review Team process. We want to lift up Kojo Damptey’s work and we have added some of our own commentary. It’s crucial that the public engage with Mr. Damptey’s analysis and keep this data and the lack of any meaningful action by HPS in our awareness so we can take appropriate action.
K. Damptey started by setting the context, explaining that the federal government called for data to be collected across the country. “Yes, our police services are collecting data but sometimes there’s issues with the data…Sometimes it’s vague and we get the reports from the interpretation of the police officers and their supervisors…On the solicitor general’s website, there are some fields that are not filled”.
The challenge before the HPS Board, is “….the historical reluctance of the police or government to impart change unless in response to either a critical incident (the crosswalk syndrome) or the demands of vociferous interest groups makes it difficult to abandon the status quo.”
Beyond a split-second: An Exploratory Study of Police use of Force and Use of Force training in Canada” Kojo Damptey. Page 4 of Use Of Force Data Analysis
K. Damptey’s analysis renders undeniable the patterns and problem of overrepresentation and overpolicing. Why are there so many officers present and interacting with Black residents, so disproportionately? See graph 2021. “Use of force and presence is always overrepresented”
CEW in Damptey’s data analysis stands for Conducted Energy Weapon. Taser use. The type of weapon HPS used on Marcus Charles When he was experiencing an EPILEPTIC SEIZURE in 2022. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/hamilton/man-taser-police-siezure-epilepsy-assault-charges-1.6607298
“The Black population in Hamilton is less than 30,000. If there is an interaction of 1% or less than 1% of our population and Black community members are overrepresented in that one per cent, we have a problem.”
Hamilton Police Services has an anti-Black Racism problem.
Mr Damptey asked, “If 80% of use of force interactions are reactions to calls, When we get the call are we actually thinking about what is provoking the call?…
…We ‘ve been told that there’s a community advisory panel, there’s a race identity based data strategy. I would say those are not silver bullets so as a board the question becomes what are you going to do about this data that keeps coming up?”
Mr Damptey shared an incident from 2023 to take us from the data to the personal. “It was a call, a parent dropping off their child at school, observed an individual holding what they believed to be a firearm and the parent advised school staff and the police were called.
Based on the description provided, two individuals who matched the description were detained at gunpoint. No firearms were located. Both individuals were released unconditionally…
…Again, that was a Black community member…
…I really think as a board, as a police service, there needs to be an action item addressing the first two quadrants. And thus far, I don’t think that is being done.”
The two quadrants Mr. Damptey is referring to are under the heading INTERNAL- within the police service and are Officer Bias and Institutional and Cultural Practices.
Next, Mr Damptey delegated about HPS’s Hate Crime’s Review Team (HCRT) K. Damptey has been part of this process since 2020, 2021 and expressed concern about what happened 2 weeks prior to this board meeting.
He recounted, “We were presented with a model where a review team will be made of 2 members of different demographics that are impacted by hate in our community here. We were asked to vote for specific groups of people in our community and prior to that voting being announced, some of us said this process is not a process that is inclusive. It’s not a process that respects different perspectives in different communities…
…There are members of the Black community that are queer, there are members of the Black community that are Jewish, we have members that are Indigenous and Black…
“I think the process for this hate crime review team is really challenging and I would say it’s also causing harm in certain communities. And if HPS is really about trust, building relationships, community building, it’s gonna be difficult because the process of the hate crime review team has really, really, really impacted certain people in different communities and it’s creating some dysfunction here in Hamilton.”
Citizen Board Member Dr. Anjali Menezes framed a question for Dr. Rahim Salmi, who is Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Specialist for HPS. “My understanding of Kojo’s concerns, if i’m correct, is the concept of applying an equality lens to the selection committee versus an equity lens, understanding intersectionality of identities and how we put that together… with a knowledge of how we put that together through community partnerships and dialogues about who should be on a HCRT, that our (HPS’s) structural and historical practices have historically and continue to pitted communities against each other.”
The chair repeatedly interrupted Dr. Menezes, tried to control an important question and to silence the only racialized member of the board.
DIVISION HAS ALWAYS BEEN A TACTIC TO DESTABILIZE ANY OPPORTUNITY FOR SYSTEMIC CHANGE!
Since the chair would not allow the question to be posed to Dr.Salmi, Mr Damptey answered, “If you are asking an applicant about intersectionality and the process to choose the applicant is not intersectional, then we have a problem. That’s what our concern is.”
THE LACK OF HOW TO PROPERLY REQUEST DATA NEEDS TO BE ADDRESSED BEFORE COMMUNITIES CAN EVEN BEGIN TO TRUST HPS.
The Chief of Police actually called the HCRT process one of “rigor”. You can’t make this stuff up.
Esther Pauls, a city councilor and board member, who’s son is a police officer, stated, “I did not know we had a separate team, a hate crime team”. Pauls went on to completely mischaracterize the case Mr. Damptey shared and in a surreal turn said that Damptey is trying to “impose” on the police and heavily implied that his points are not valid because he hasn’t taken the police officer course. Pauls ended her rant exclaiming that “It’s scary” for the police.
Esther Pauls, how dare you tell Black leaders advocating for their rights that they are “imposing”? If there was any true accountability, Pauls would be removed from this board and any institutional discussion about policing. She’s a walking thin blue line. Esther Pauls- Go. Away. Leave.
How in any universe, is a person allowed to be on the Police Services Board who demonstrates so much OVERT, UNAPOLOGETIC disregard, WHITE GRIEVANCE AND IGNORANCE for and about communities. Pauls is also clearly negligent, eg. fails to read reports.
Kojo Damptey answered, “What I do know is that when there’s data and when we analyze it , it tells us stuff. This study was done with police officers that carry out their training and this is one of the things they said in the report. Don’t take it from me, If you read the report you’ll get some more input about that.”
Dr. Menezes noted the difference between the data shared with Hamilton community and Board members and that which Mr Damptey has presented. What differs in terms of accessibility and why Mr. Damptey chose to present it as he did?
Mr Damptey explained that the data for his analysis was from the solicitor general’s website. It included much more detail and Mr. Damptey has made this available to the community.
Equity Network’s position is that HPS Board Treatment of Black and racialized board and community members is patronizing, dehumanizing, violent and we are beyond sick of it. We are extremely grateful for Mr. Damptey’s analysis and delegations.
What WE find scary is the audacity of a group of white men thinking they have any idea how to address systemic racism that has been deeply embedded for generations in this city. They are not the experts.
Hamilton Police, talk less, seek the expertise of those harmed and that have the lived experience and knowledge to address this harmful oppression. What we are seeing is merely performative bullshit. HPS does not appear to address systemic racism in good faith. We do not trust any initiatives coming out of policing based on the data and their actions thus far.