Indigenous Calgarians overrepresented in police calls, use of force: CPS

Indigenous Calgarians are significantly more likely to come in contact with police and be subject to use of force, according to new data presented to the Calgary Police Commission.

Calgary Police Service (CPS) released the data on Wednesday, four years in the making, after the force committed in 2020 to collect and report race-based data.

The force is calling it a first step as they release race-based data they say will hopefully inform the force’s policies going forward.

“If you are out with a little more information about what you know about the interactions you have, you may approach something different,” says CPS Deputy Chief Chad Tawfik.

The data police collected is part of two reports, one looking at the police force’s race data analysis which compares 2023 data to the period of 2018 to 2022 and another looking at race data specifically when it comes to use of force that compares stats from 2023 to 2022. 

“Especially in a multicultural environment such as ours, it is absolutely crucial we have such data,” says University of Alberta sociology professor Temitope Oriola.

Indigenous, Black Calgarians overrepresented when it comes to use of force

The data found that Indigenous and Black communities were overrepresented when it came to use of force by officers.

Indigenous females were subject to use of force nearly 7 times more than the general population and Indigenous males were overrepresented by four times.

Black males were two times overrepresented.

Three quarters of the 636 people who experienced force in 2023 were arrested and another 13 per cent were apprehended. The data suggests one-third (33%) of force subjects were not charged with a crime.

“At the minimum we need a more humane approach to policing,” says Oriola. “A single use of force incident can undue years of community engagement that the police service has done.”

Same groups over-represented in police interactions, crime

The report also suggests Indigenous Calgarians are over-represented in encounters with police resulting from public calls for service. The proportion of officer contacts involving the Indigenous population doubled from 8 per cent in 2018 to 16 per cent in 2023.

Indigenous residents were 13.8 times more likely to be the subject of officers contacts related to disorder and police were 13.9 times more likely to be called to respond to a vulnerable Indigenous person.

Indigenous Calgarians were also 16 times more likely to be the subject of a call to police involving drugs. This data aligns with demographic information collected by the Calgary Homeless Foundation, which identifies a high proportion of individuals accessing services as Indigenous.

Black men were 2.3 times more likely to be the subject of reports for a police response for disorder, drugs, and vulnerable persons.

Indigenous Calgarians are six times overrepresented as offenders of violent and property crimes, while Black offenders are two times over-represented.

Indigenous women more likely to be victims of violent crime

CPS data indicated Indigenous people are 2.5 times over-represented as victims of violent crime.

Furthermore, the proportion of Indigenous women who are victims of assault, robbery, and sex offences is much higher than their proportion of Calgary’s population — four times, 2.5 times, and four times, respectively.

There were 14,400 victims of violent crime in Calgary in 2023.

Nine per cent of people are victimized more than once, and 14 per cent of Indigenous people are repeat victims.

Indigenous females are 4, 6 and 9 times over-represented as new victims, repeat victims and chronic victims of domestic assault respectively, as compared to the general population.

Youth, Indigenous disproportionally represented in missing person reports

Calgary’s population is three per cent Indigenous, but in 2023 members of that community accounted for 36 per cent of missing person reports — an over-representation of 12 times.

Calgarians aged 12 to 17 make up seven per cent of the overall population, but accounted for 58 per cent of all missing person reports in 2022.

Youth are over-represented as missing people by more than seven times and 95 per cent of missing persons reports for this age group list the child as a runaway.

In comparison, seniors make up 14 per cent of the city’s population and account for less than five per cent of missing persons.

Regardless of race, CPS says 99 per cent of people reported missing are found.

What’s next?

CPS says the report and data provide a starting point to look at internal processes and better engage with the community.

The information has been given to operational areas of the force as a means to inform and reflect on current processes, it adds.

“Findings highlighting the high rate of officer contact with Indigenous people has also shown the importance of engaging with the CPS’ Indigenous Resource Team as well as community partners such as the Indigenous Friendship Centre and supports within the surrounding Nations,” the report says.

Following the collection of the data, an Indigenous Community Navigator was created in the Missing Persons Unit.