Residents and community groups demanded the resignation of Peel police Chief Jennifer Evans, citing a growing mistrust of the force, at a meeting in Brampton Tuesday evening.

“Carding needs to stop,” said La Tanya Grant. “Carding is what killed Jermaine Carby . . . if he wasn’t carded that day my cousin Jermaine would still be here. I feel that Chief Evans needs to resign. She’s condoning carding, which killed my cousin.”

Grant, who speaks on behalf of the Justice For Jermaine Carby Committee, was one of 60 Peel residents who attended the public meeting Tuesday hosted by Justice Michael Tulloch. He was appointed by the provincial government to head a review of Ontario’s three police oversight bodies.

Calls for those bodies — the Special Investigations Unit, the Office Of Independent Police Review Director and the Ontario Civilian Police Commission — to become more transparent and to stop hiring former cops to investigate current ones were echoed by almost everyone who spoke.

But much of the conversation when residents were at the microphone focused on the poor treatment that they said they had experienced at the hands of Peel police. Many called for Evans to step down.

Dwight Campbell, a member of the Peel Coalition Against Racialized Discrimination (P-CARD) spoke of a negative interaction with Peel officers that he said occurred 13 years ago. His father, he said, made him file a complaint about the incident with the local police division. “I’m yet to hear anything happening about that.”

He said he used to live in northern Alabama, and regarding police, “I haven’t seen much of a difference.” He told the Toronto Star that “chronic” problems with the force are “because of an entrenched culture and system, and the leadership. Chief Evans really does need to step down. That is the only way forward. She has shown time and again that she’s not interested in change, even when the mayors tried to make her stop carding.”

Brampton Mayor Linda Jeffrey, who sits on the Peel Police Services Board, attended the public meeting. She told the Star that the reason she’s on the board is to help make positive changes.

“I’m not here to keep the seat warm. I believe some policies at Peel Region Police need a refresh and a new set of eyes looking at them. And that’s become evident over the last couple of years.”

Tensions have mounted between Evans and some residents and community groups in Peel, as well as the Peel Police Services Board which oversees the force. Last year the chief refused a request by the board — led by Jeffrey and Mississauga Mayor Bonnie Crombie — which voted to suspend the controversial practice of carding, known in Peel as street checks.