A commentary by sa国际传媒’s human rights commissioner.
The debate on police in schools has been muddied by misinformation and misunderstandings, fear mongering and tenuous claims about the relationship between the program and children’s safety.
The controversies that surround this issue raise deep feelings on all sides, so I want to emphasize our shared goal: We all want our schools to be safe places for our young people to learn and thrive. The key question to achieve this must be: What does the evidence show to be the best way to achieve that goal?
Evidence-based policy is more effective and more likely to avoid bias, stereotypes and reinforcement of systemic discrimination.
I have reviewed the data from 2015 to 2024 made available by police whose jurisdictions include schools in the Greater Victoria district, and it shows no clear correlation between an increase in gang activity in schools and the end of the school police liaison officer (SPLO) program.
To be clear, cancelling the SPLO program does not hinder valid investigations or responses to criminal activity in or around schools. Conducting these investigations with a view to enforcing the law is an appropriate role for the police.
The question here is about the effect of police who are in schools with the objective simply to build relationships with children and youth.
The data also does not demonstrate a correlation between increased calls to police and the end of the SPLO program. Victoria and Esquimalt police data show that call-outs to elementary schools between 2015 and 2024 have remained relatively stable, reaching a high in 2020, while police callouts to high schools have decreased between 2015 and 2024. The latter was also the case for district schools served by the Saanich Police Department.
In short, there are significant gaps in the evidence supporting SPLOs. We simply don’t have enough research to say definitively one way or another whether they will help keep our young people safe and thriving.
What we do know is this: My office’s 2021 report, Equity is Safer, shows significant racial disparities in policing affecting Indigenous and Black people.
Among other things, the findings include that Indigenous and Black people, and to a lesser extent Arab/West Asian and Hispanic people, are far more overrepresented in public disorder offences and administration of justice charges than charges involving serious violence.
They are far over-represented in arrests and detentions by police, and in mental health incidents involving police.
And we found similar over-representation in proactive policing practices, for example when police are conducting street checks.
Behind the numbers are people and communities who experience real harm as a result of discriminatory policing, both immediate and long term. Given these numbers and experiences, we know that Indigenous, Black and other racialized children are witnessing their communities be disproportionately impacted by negative interactions with police — and therefore may themselves have well-founded fears about the police.
These fears are well borne out in other jurisdictions. For example, U.S. research from 2020 suggests that when faced with the same behavioural infractions, SPLOs are more likely to arrest or charge Black students, while white students are more likely to be cautioned or diverted into an informal conflict resolution or treatment program.
I want to be clear that I am referring to U.S. data only to make the point that this research raises important questions about whether these same issues occur in sa国际传媒 — questions to which we do not have answers because of a lack of research here. The critique that my argument is based on U.S. data is simply false.
All of this data — and lack of data — taken together is enough to raise a reasonable and serious concern that SPLO programs cause more harm than good.
It has been three years since I recommended the provincial government gather the needed evidence, yet no action has been taken to conduct high-quality research on current and recently ended SPLO programs that centres Indigenous, Black and other acutely affected student populations.
This is a call to action that could unite all of us: who among us doesn’t want to know what actually keeps our kids the safest?
If we discover SPLO programs create more harm than they prevent, we must build up educational supports to replace them. If we discover these programs are as valuable as policing organizations suggest — and that research from other jurisdictions showing their harm does not apply in sa国际传媒 — we can act accordingly.
In order for these programs to be run, SPLOs must be proven to be effective in addressing harms to children and not be causing harm to children. Until then, the programs must be paused.
To protect the safety and human rights of children, and to bridge the gap between people on each side of this issue, the sa国际传媒 government has a duty to act now.
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