Researching police misconduct: Ricochet teams up with Tracking (In)justice

 

Joint research project will seek to expand database to include serious injury at the hands of police officers, and track consequences for the officers involved

In 2021 Ricochet won a Michener fellowship to study police misconduct in Canada, a research project supported by the Inspirit Foundation. Today, we are happy to announce our ongoing partnership with the Tracking (In)justice project to jointly pursue the next phase of this critical research — expanding the database of incidents leading to death to also include incidents leading to serious injury as well as, when available, the consequences for the officers involved.

Last year, Tracking (In)justice, composed of academic researchers at Carleton University, Queens University and the University of Toronto, supported by several non-governmental organizations and funded through the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council and the Canadian Civil Liberties Association, created a publicly-accessible database of police-involved deaths in Canada which is available online.

Rather than duplicate that comprehensive work, we’ve been collaborating since earlier this year to expand our understanding of policing in Canada.

Police-involved deaths in Canada are increasing at a staggering rate, going up over 72 per cent in the six years between 2016 and 2022.

According to the available data, since 2000, Tracking (In)justice have identified 732 police-involved deaths where force was used. 2022 was the deadliest year yet in terms of police-involved deaths, with 69 people dying in interactions with police where force was used. There were 57 such deaths in 2021, and 52 in 2020. The highest number in a single year prior to that was 40 in 2016.

Now we’re working on compiling comparable data for incidents that lead to serious injury, and the consequences for the officers involved.  (more...)

Researching police misconduct: Ricochet teams up with Tracking (In)justice