Racial bias and 911 calls: Montreal police train dispatchers to focus on facts
When someone calls 911 to report a crime, a dispatcher has just seconds to react. When all goes to plan, police will be on their way in a matter of moments, ready to respond to an emergency.
However, the responding officer will only have seconds’ worth of information to work with, and sometimes, that caller’s information is affected by racial bias, experts say.
“A good example would be when someone calls regarding a group of young Black men in a park, and the caller adds that they’re ‘probably part of a street gang’,” said Dammya Loiseau, a 911 supervisor at the Montreal police department (SPVM).
“The general caller is not equipped to validate if that person is from a street gang,” she said.
“[But] when we put, verbatim, ‘they are probably part of a street gang’… the police officer’s reaction is not the same, because they are going to be ready for [that sort of situation].”
Loiseau is part of an internal push within the SPVM to change the way dispatchers relay information to officers.
She’s one of a small group of agents behind a new training program that encourages dispatchers to restrict the information they give police to facts only.
That way, she says, officers won’t be influenced by the racial bias of callers.
“We have to be careful to make sure that whatever the caller says is actually a fact,” Loiseau told CTV, adding that the new training encourages dispatchers to ask additional, fact-finding questions to callers, even after the officer has received a first round of information.
For example, “‘do you know them to be part of a street gang?’ ‘Can you give us a description?’ ‘Can you tell us how they are dressed?’”
Loiseau says she believes the training, which began last week, is one of the first of its kind in Canada. She says nearby police departments have expressed interest in creating their own, similar programs.
For the most part, reception to the training has been positive among the SPVM’s dispatcher workforce of 220.
“Some of them did not even realize that the words they chose had an effect on police interventions,” she said.
FILE: Police are shown on the scene in the Montreal suburb of Dollard-Des Ormeaux in Montreal, Saturday, February 13, 2021. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Graham Hughes
FACTS ARE A MATTER OF SAFETY: FORMER CHIEF INSPECTOR
Former-SPVM chief inspector Paul Chablo told CTV that, during his time as an officer, he found himself responding to calls with extremely limited information.
“It was a scary thing,” he said. “We don't want to arrest the wrong person, or interview the wrong person."
Loiseau says there are a few common ways that a 911 caller might misidentify someone, or make an assumption that may not be true.
For example, she said, a caller might identify someone of Asian descent as "Chinese," or a Middle-Eastern person as "Muslim."
Chablo says he supports the initiative, adding that any training to make dispatch more fact-driven is a positive step to ensure the safety of officers and subjects of a 911 report.
“They'll see fewer cases of racial profiling, as well as fewer cases of illegal arrests,” he said.
A RESPONSE TO DISPROPORTIONATE STOPS
Loiseau says she and others were inspired to add additional training for dispatchers after a 2019 report found Indigenous people were 4.6 times more likely to be stopped for a street check than white people, and that a Black person was 4.2 times as likely to be stopped.
"Street checks" are interactions with police that do not result in an arrest. The study examined officer activity from 2014 to 2017.
“When we saw that report, there was a group of five or six agents who got together to talk to see how we could make a difference,” said Loiseau. “We’re the first link in the chain.”
-- Published with files from CTV's Tania Krywiak
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
BREAKING Average hourly wage in Canada now $34.95: StatCan
Average hourly wages among Canadian employees rose to $34.95 on a year-over-year basis in April, a 4.7 per cent increase, according to a Statistics Canada report released Friday morning.
From outer space? Sask. farmers baffled after discovering strange wreckage in field
A family of fifth generation farmers from Ituna, Sask. are trying to find answers after discovering several strange objects lying on their land.
This iconic Canadian song is turning 50
Andy Kim's 'Rock Me Gently' is marking a major milestone, as it celebrates its 50th anniversary.
Oprah Winfrey: I set an unrealistic standard for dieting
Oprah Winfrey said on Thursday evening that she has long played a role in promoting unhealthy and unrealistic diets.
Ontario family receives massive hospital bill as part of LTC law, refuses to pay
A southwestern Ontario woman has received an $8,400 bill from a hospital in Windsor, Ont., after she refused to put her mother in a nursing home she hated -- and she says she has no intention of paying it.
Toronto police called to Drake's Bridle Path mansion for another alleged intruder on Thursday
Toronto police say a man who allegedly attempted to access Drake’s Bridle Path property was taken to hospital on Thursday after an altercation with security guards.
Flat tire on a highway? Here's why you shouldn't try to fix it
If you're cruising down a highway and realize you have a flat tire, you may want to think twice before stopping to fix it on the side of the road.
Storm-battered U.S. South is again under threat. A boy swept into a drain fights for his life
Dangerous storms crashed over parts of the U.S. South on Thursday even as the region cleaned up from earlier severe weather that spawned tornadoes, killed at least three people, and gravely injured a boy who was swept into a storm drain as he played in a flooded street.
Broadcaster and commentator Rex Murphy dead at 77: National Post
The National Post is reporting that Rex Murphy, the pundit and columnist who hosted a national call-in radio show for decades, has died.