Police in Kingston, Ontario, stop Native people 1.4 times more often than they stop white people, according to a study released on Thursday.

"Bias Free Policing" [ PDF] found disparities in the justice system. Even though Natives make up 1.6 percent of the city's population, they represented 2.2 percent of all stops.

The study also showed that police stop African-Americans more often than white and Natives. African-American residents are only 0.6 percent of the population but 3.7 percent of the stops, the data found.

The report prompted Kingston police Chief William Closs to apologize to the Native and African-American community. "I'm not apologizing for the wrongdoing of my officers, but I am apologizing as the police chief because I am responsible for the organization," he was quoted as saying. "Whatever is going on here is systemic. There is something in our organization that needs to be adjusted, fixed or changed."

Get the Story:
Police stop more blacks, Ont. study finds (CBC 5/26)
Minority report out (The Ottawa Sun 5/27)
Summary of findings (The Ottawa Sun 5/27)
Kingston police more likely to stop blacks, study finds (The Globe and Mail 5/27)
Blacks stopped more often by police, study finds (CTV 5/27)

Relevant Documents:
Kingston Police Data Collection Project Preliminary Report (March 2005)

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