Race study results under fire

Race study results under fire

By Tamsin McMahon
Local News - Tuesday, June 07, 2005 @ 07:00

A prominent University of Ottawa criminologist is challenging the results of the controversial Kingston Police project to collect race-based statistics, calling it a “silly study” that shows no proof of racial profiling.

Ron Melchers, an associate professor who specializes in methodology and policing, is expected to refute the study’s findings today during a presentation by the Kingston Police Association, the union that represents uniformed officers and civilian employees.

Melchers said he has several concerns about the methodology of the study, which has been hailed by minority rights advocates as proof that racial profiling exists.

He said the benchmark used to judge Kingston’s population – a 2001 Statistics Canada census – is unreliable because it doesn’t give an accurate picture of the true makeup of the community.

The study should never have been done, he said, because the sample of the population involved was too small to draw any accurate conclusions.

“Someone should have turned this down. This is a silly study,” Melchers said. “The results are inconclusive and unreliable, the interpretations seen in the media are specious and the consequences of doing this kind of thing is that a lot of people are concerned that their children will be unfairly treated by police when there is no evidence that this is the case.

Melchers is one of three academics expected to attend today’s presentation by the police union.

Kingston Police Association president Sean Bambrick wouldn’t name the others, but said one was a local resident with a PhD.

Bambrick stressed that none of the academics was hired by the association.

“They’re people who are volunteering to do this out of good public service because of their own interest in the topic,” he said.

The union had been silent about the project after the police department released the preliminary results on May 26 in a public meeting at which Chief Bill Closs apologized to black and native communities.

Though officers had originally opposed the project, they collected the information anyway.

Bambrick said that after taking time to digest the report, the union feels people have jumped to conclusions in assuming the study proves racial profiling.

“We maintain our original position that with programs like this data collection you’re not going to prove or disprove anything,” he said.

Since the study’s release, officers have been under fire in the community from people accusing police of being racist, Bambrick said.

“We’ve seen an increase in terms of interactions with hostility with some members of the public, not of any specific race,” he said.

“In general, it seems more people are using it as an excuse to justify their behaviour.”

Kingston Police officers spent a year collecting information on the age, gender, race and ethnicity of everyone stopped by police.

They compiled data on more than 10,000 stops involving 8,455 Kingston residents, 175 of whom were identified as black.

An analysis done by University of Toronto criminologist Scot Wortley found that blacks were three times more likely to be stopped than whites.

Men and young people in general were much more likely to be stopped, but young black males were stopped more frequently than any other demographic.

Melchers said the number of black residents cited in Wortley’s report, 685, is lower than estimates of 845 to 850 that he has seen.

As many as 130 people listed themselves as visible minorities without specifying a race or ethnicity, Melchers added.

The 2001 census lists the number of black Kingston residents as 685. The number rises to 850 for the Kingston Census Metropolitan Area, which includes the townships of Loyalist, South Frontenac and Frontenac Islands.

Comparing census data to police stops isn’t a recognized method of studying racial profiling in the U.S., Melchers said, where at least 400 police departments collect race-based statistics on traffic stops.

As part of the study, Wortley, along with Kingston Police criminologist Ray Lonsdale, also surveyed areas of the city, including Queen’s University and the downtown entertainment district on busy weekend nights, to compare the number of visible minorities to those listed in the census.

Checking the results against police stops for the areas cut down on the differences, but still found that blacks were between 1.2 and 1.5 times more likely to be stopped than whites.

Source

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