Despite a rise in the number of incidents involving firearms, use of force by York Regional Police in 2022 has decreased compared to the previous year.
York Regional Police had 401,400 interactions with the public last year, and of those, 199 involved use of force — a 13.5 per cent decrease from the previous year, the force's police services board heard April 26.
This means that 99.5 per cent of interactions between York Regional Police and the public were resolved without the use of force.
"This number is significant," said York Regional Police Supt. Kevin McCloskey, who presented the report to the police services board. He also said use of force incidents involving YRP are "exceptionally rare."
Police agencies are required to report any use of force incidents, including when an officer's handgun is drawn in front of a member of the public, pointed or discharged, when an officer uses any other weapon on another person, when physical force is used on another person resulting in an injury requiring medical attention, or when a conducted energy weapon is deployed or displayed.
There is often more than one use of force report created for each incident and there were 358 reports in 2022. McCloskey said this could be because there is more than one officer involved at the incident.
Of those reports, 151 involved an officer pointing a firearm, 84 involved a conducted energy weapon, 41 involved physical control, six involved an aerosol weapon and six involved police service dogs.
The report also looked at the details of subjects, or members of the public, involved in use of force incidents. There were 260 subjects involved.
It found that the number of incidents with armed subjects increased by 44 per cent compared to the previous year. The majority of the subjects were armed with firearms.
"For the first time in five years, we have seen firearms become the most commonly encountered weapon during a use of force incident," said Insp. Chirag Bhatt.
More than 140 subjects involved in use of force were unarmed, but Bhatt said that this does not mean the use of force was unreasonable or unjustified.
Of the 260 subjects, "perceived to be Black" represented 35 per cent and subjects "perceived to be white" was 34 per cent.
To better understand how race impacts use of force, York Regional Police did further investigation on perceived race data.
"Our review of every one of our use of force incidents found that when faced with similar subject behaviours and similar situational factors, there was no notable difference in the application of force based on race," Bhatt said. "During this review, we found that our officers responded to subject behaviours proportionately, reasonably and in accordance with our training."
The use of force report helps inform training at York Regional Police and is looked at quarterly to identify trends and ensure the training received is relevant. This includes use of force training, de-escalation training, anti-racism training, training on bias-free policing and active shooter training.
