MONTREAL -- Members of Montreal’s minority communities called on the SPVM to begin documenting race during traffic stops and street checks, citing a recent report showed some ethnicities are more likely to be stopped by police.

Documenting the race of those pulled over by police has already become practice in other cities, according to Alain Babineau of the Center for Research Action on Race Relations.

“We’re not reinventing the wheel here,” he said. “This was done in Kingston in the early 2000s, it’s been done in Toronto, it’s been done in Ottawa, it’s also been done in Halifax.”

The independent study, which was commissioned by the SPVM and released last fall, showed Black, Arab and Indigenous people were stopped at higher rates.

Jessica Quijano of the Native Women’s Shelter said the culture in the SPVM needs to change.

“Definitely the police need cultural sensitivity training,” she said. “They need more Indigenous police officers. Our Indigenous liaison officer isn’t Indigenous. When they’re victims of crimes or victims of assault the relationship with police are so strained they don’t want to go report those cases.”

Lionel Perez, the interim leader of Montreal’s opposition party, noted the city had scrapped the idea of making police officers wear body cameras last year.  He said documenting the race of those involved in interactions with police could provide useful information.

“If there is systemic racism then we need systemic solutions and that’s only achieved when we change things and we can collect data,” he said.

A spokesperson for the Montreal’s executive committee said race is already documented by police but city councillor Marvin Rotrand said collecting that data isn’t mandatory.

“It’s not required, it may be noted in some cases but it’s up to the officer,” he said. “There’s no protocol requiring it.”

The SPVM is set to submit a policy on street checks in March but Babineau said some form of consultations with minority groups should be held.

“I would urge the city and the SPVM, before they release (the policy) to at least run it by those groups that are involved in fighting this problem on a daily basis,” he said.