Police Carding Essay

694 Words3 Pages

The police practice of carding is fundamentally perceived as a race and class issue that has come to define a tumultuous relationship between police and people of colour from the past to modern-day, causing a mistrust in police and the system. The practice of police stops allow police to operate in a grey area by obtaining evidence and information through psychological intimidation, many times directed to youth. The recent call for legislation and accountability of police has brought the issue to the forefront of media and public concern. There have been many police and community based investigations on the practice, one being the Police and Community Engagement Review (PACER). PACER stipulated that the police were going to go forward …show more content…

The data collection is particular harmful to youth who are often targets of police stops who will now have a record, without ever having received a ticket, been charged or arrested. The indefinite keeping of these interactions is absolutely detrimental when applying to jobs that require a background check, subsequently harming the applicants’ chance of getting a job at no fault or wrongdoing. This would be prominent if they were to apply to the police force or in a sector dealing with children. George Singh has firsthand encountered several police stops with damning descriptions of him, he is a student of Osgoode Hall law program and is well aware of his rights and plans to continue to fight to protect them, but as it stands he will continue to have a record with the police forever affecting his chance of obtaining certain jobs. In court cases such as Anthony Fountain, an arrest was not the intended goal from the beginning but resulted into the officer violating Fountains constitutional rights while obtaining evidence. The judge ruled that although Fountains rights were not observed the evidence obtained was admissible due to the weight the evidence carried. Ruling such as these are concerning because it may lead police to continue to take risks that would infringe upon citizens constitutional rights if they believe it will still be admitted. Fountain