Black people made up 41 per cent of RCMP street checks around Halifax

In the first 10 months of 2016, 41 per cent of street checks done by the RCMP around Halifax involved subjects who officers identified as black.

The information comes from a report prepared by RCMP crime analyst Sheila Serfas.

It was posted on the website of the Halifax Board of Police Commissioners following a discussion Monday about similar statistics compiled by the Halifax Regional Police.

Checks in African Nova Scotian communities

Of the 1,246 street checks mentioned in the report, 299 (24 per cent) involved women, 944 (76 per cent) involved men, with three subjects of unknown gender. 

It said 509 of those street checks involved subjects identified as black.

The report also indicated 44 per cent of the street checks were conducted in the predominantly African-Nova Scotian communities of East Preston, North Preston and Cherry Brook.

The report appeared to link the high number of street checks in those communities to a series of shootings that took place around the Halifax municipality last year.

"There would have been a significant need for intelligence during this time as there were no charges on the file or subjects in custody," the report said.

It added that four of the shootings were linked to the community of North Preston and the RCMP reacted with "a significant increase in manpower in the Preston zone to curb violence."

RCMP not commenting on report

Board chair Steve Craig requested the RCMP submit their statistics.

"It's important that our citizens know that they're being well-served," said Craig, who is Halifax's deputy mayor and the councillor for Lower Sackville. 

"I'm looking forward to ... better understanding what the data is telling us, and what we're going to do about it and make any changes as required."

Nova Scotia RCMP declined to comment on the report Wednesday.

Other data analyzed

Of the 509 street checks involving subjects identified as black, 440 were done in East and North Preston and Cherry Brook. Of the 509, 205 happened between April 1 and July 31, 2016.

The RCMP also analyzed data from 25,322 street checks from fiscal years 2006 to 2016, which showed a lower percentage of checks involving black subjects.

During that period, 81 per cent involved white subjects, 12 per cent black subjects, five per cent unknown, and the balance Arab/West Asian, Aboriginal, East/Southeast Asian, South Asian and other.

The visible minority categories originate with Statistics Canada and were adopted by the Versadex Records Management System used by police to record street checks.

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