Vancouver city council unanimously votes to ban street checks
Posted July 22, 2020 9:21 pm.
Last Updated July 23, 2020 5:21 am.
VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) — Vancouver council has approved a motion to abolish street checks in the city.
After hearing from more than 80 speakers on the issue for weeks, council wrapped up the vote Wednesday evening.
#BREAKING: Vancouver city council has unanimously voted in favour of banning street checks across the city. City council heard from dozens of speakers on the issue, and just wrapped up their vote moments ago. Council will now direct the police board to end the practice. @NEWS1130
— Tarnjit Kaur Parmar (@Tarnjitkparmar) July 23, 2020
Council will now direct the police board to end the practice, which has been found to target Black and Indigenous people.
Vancouver Mayor Kennedy Stewart, who has been behind the motion to ban checks, says abolishing them can help keep people safe.
“It’s time for reform,” Stewart said. “Reviewing the police checks data they are shown to be weighted disproportionately towards minority members of the community.”
Thank you council for supporting my motion to abolish street checks in Vancouver.
And thank you to all the speakers who shared their stories & supported this important change – especially Black, Indigenous & people of colour who are disproportionately impacted.#vanpoli pic.twitter.com/4ZqqE1uscO
— Kennedy Stewart (@kennedystewart) July 23, 2020
Stewart later took to Twitter to thank council for supporting the motion but made clear council does not have the ability to abolish the practice.
“The Police Board will consider its own motion to review street checks and make a final decision on a ban,” the tweet reads. “I’ll keep pushing this forward, stay tuned.”
The police board will now be making their own motion to review street checks which will likely be discussed in September.
Street checks involve police stopping a person, demanding they produce identification and then recording that information in a provincial database. These checks are not done as part of criminal investigations.
BC Civil Liberties Association, Black Lives Matter-Vancouver, Hogan’s Alley Society, the Union of BC Indian Chiefs, and WISH Drop-In Centre Society are the five organizations that have worked to shed light on the ban.
