Use-of-Force Data Raises Questions About Race, Policing, and Accountability in Halton

By: Kezia Royer-Burkett, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Burlington Local-News.ca

 

As the region transitions into 2026, new research funded by the University of Toronto is reinforcing ongoing concerns about policing and race in Halton, raising questions about accountability, perception, and lived experience.

 

McMaster University PhD student and sessional instructor Kojo Damptey recently published research examining police use-of-force data across 17 cities and regions in Ontario, including Halton. His findings show a consistent pattern of racial disproportionality, particularly impacting Black and Indigenous communities. In Halton Region, Black males make up approximately 1.6% of the population, yet they accounted for 25.2% of use-of-force incidents in 2023 and 24.7% in 2024. While there was a slight year-over-year decrease, Damptey notes that the overall rate of disproportionality remains consistent.

 

The data also show that young Black men are disproportionately affected. In 2023, 90.3% of Black males who experienced use of force were 34 years old or younger. In 2024, that figure was 88.2%. Across racial lines, racialized males aged 34 and under experienced use of force at higher rates than their white counterparts. Overall, 27.7% of all individuals subjected to police use of force in Halton were Black.

 

“When you look at use-of-force data, Indigenous communities, Black communities, and other racialized communities are impacted the most,” Damptey said. “The data is very, very troubling.”

 

Damptey situates the numbers within a broader social context shaped by stereotypes, surveillance, and community calls to police. He explained that many police encounters begin not with criminal activity, but with perceptions of who belongs in certain spaces.

 

“Young Black and racialized men in certain places — people feel like they shouldn’t be there, so they call the police,” he said. “When officers show up, that’s often how use of force presents itself.”

 

He noted that many incidents originate from calls reporting “suspicious” behaviour that later turns out to be benign. 

 

“We continue to see the same stereotypes,” Damptey said, referencing repeated examples of neighbours calling police after seeing a Black man in a hoodie. “Those assumptions play a major role in why Black and racialized communities show up so prominently in use-of-force data.”

 

Burlington Local-News.ca also spoke with Halton Regional Police Service Chief Stephen J. Tanner, Canada’s longest-serving police chief, who offered context for how use-of-force statistics are generated. Tanner said a significant portion of Halton’s use-of-force reports stems from joint operations across the Greater Toronto Area.

 

“A lot of our use-of-force reports come from joint operations outside of Halton, particularly large-scale GTA investigations involving guns, gangs, auto theft, and organized crime,” Tanner said.

 

He explained that Halton officers often assist with coordinated arrests beyond regional borders. “Our tactical team is sometimes in downtown Toronto arresting Toronto gang members because there simply aren’t enough tactical teams to do all the arrests at the same time,” he said. “Those use-of-force incidents are still reported by Halton.”

 

Tanner added that many individuals involved in these incidents are not residents of Halton. “They come in, commit serious crimes like jewelry store robberies, and are arrested here — or arrested by our officers elsewhere — and that goes into our statistics,” he said, noting that this can skew comparisons with local population demographics.

 

Damptey emphasized that the use of force includes a wide range of actions beyond physical injury. 

 

“It ranges from drawing a taser and pointing it at somebody, to releasing it, punching, kicking, all the way to shooting someone,” he said. “There’s a whole gamut of actions that fall under use of force.” That breadth, he added, helps explain why young people are so heavily represented. “Police show up, youth feel unfairly suspected, and the situation escalates.”

 

He also questioned how de-escalation training is applied in practice. “De-escalation, as police define it, isn’t necessarily about having a conversation,” Damptey said. “They actually use different types of force as part of what they consider de-escalation.”

 

Tanner, meanwhile, stressed that use of force remains rare relative to the volume of police interactions. “When you think about the hundreds of thousands of interactions our officers have, the number of situations where use of force is reported in Halton is actually quite low,” he said. “A change of even 10 incidents in a relatively small sample size can significantly affect the percentages. One thing I’m proud of is that our officers use force very infrequently.”

 

The findings have also shaped how Black-led organizations in Halton engage with policing institutions. In December, the Halton Regional Police Service Youth Advisory Council reached out to Halton Black Voices to explore a potential project involving Black youth. The organization declined the invitation, citing deep mistrust rooted in lived experience.

 

“At this time, we would not be able to move forward with a meeting or collaboration,” Halton Black Voices wrote. “Our work is grounded in the lived experiences, safety, and self-determination of Black communities, particularly Black youth. Given the historical and ongoing impacts of policing on Black lives, many of the youth and families we work with experience deep mistrust, harm, and trauma in relation to police institutions.”

 

The organization emphasized its focus on protecting community-led spaces where Black youth can heal and build power without feeling surveilled or required to justify their experiences.

 

Burlington Local-News.ca reached out to the Halton Regional Police Board for comment and further explanation on plans to address these statistics and improve police interactions with people of colour. The board confirmed it plans to respond next week.

 

For Damptey, the data underscore the need for structural accountability. He remains critical of diversity, equity, and inclusion training that does not address systemic bias. “Most DEI training doesn’t talk about ingrained stereotypes,” he said. “If we’re not seeing a change in the numbers, then the training is faulty.”

 

Ontario’s Anti-Racism Act requires public institutions, including police services, to collect race-based data to track discrimination. Damptey noted that while these data are now being released annually, it relies on perceived race rather than self-identification, raising further concerns.

 

“The purpose of this data is accountability,” he said. “Police services should have an internal action plan to address this gross overrepresentation. What concrete steps are they taking?”

 

All police services in Ontario are required to release their 2025 use-of-force data in April. Damptey says transparency will remain critical. “This data exists so communities can hold institutions accountable year after year,” he said.