Submission on Draft Street Checks Regulations

In a submission to the Honourable Yasir Naqvi, Minister of Community Safety and Correctional Services, the Commissioner offers recommendations on the draft regulation proposed on October 28, 2015, which seeks to regulate the practice of police street checks across the province. The Commissioner strongly supports the commitment to enacting a standard to help ensure that street checks are conducted in a consistent manner that respects privacy rights, as well as other fundamental rights and freedoms.

The Commissioner’s recommendations focus on four key areas:

• Expanding the scope of the regulation to apply to a broader range of street check-related encounters between police and the public, including when an officer is investigating a particular offence or asking an individual to provide any personal information;
• The timing, scope and exceptions to the duty of police to provide rights notification;
• The treatment of personal information that has been or will be collected, including the general requirement
  to securely dispose of legacy information by July 1, 2018; and
• Improving transparency and accountability, including by requiring de-identified information to be recorded to identify and evaluate the impacts of street checks on privacy and other rights.