Toronto Police Chief Bill Blair has suspended the controversial practice of carding.

A routine order issued by the chief Jan. 1 said carding will be “suspended until further notice,” according to Toronto police spokesperson Meaghan Gray, who said in an email that Blair would not be commenting on the decision until next month.

“The Chief will not be speaking publicly on the issue until he has had an opportunity to discuss it with the Board at the next meeting,” wrote Gray.

The move comes after a December police board meeting at which Mayor John Tory, in his first appearance at the board, said the continuation of carding was “corrosive in a way that is fundamentally inconsistent with how we do things in Toronto and Canada. And how we live.”

The board passed a motion asking the chief to finalize carding procedures by Feb. 19 that are in line with the board’s new community contacts policy — which passed in April and emphasizes citizen rights, including the right of an individual to walk away from the encounter if the person is not being investigated for a specific crime.

But the task may have been too much for Blair.

“I think the writing was on the wall,” said lawyer Howard Morton, noting that new board member Shelley Carroll drew attention to the number of speakers at the December meeting who asked that the practice be stopped.

“And obviously, and I say this genuinely, it’s better for the chief to do that … and come to the conclusion that they simply can’t follow the guidelines established by the board last April,” said Morton, a member of the Law Union of Ontario, which has been a vocal opponent of carding.

Many others agree the move by Blair to suspend carding isn’t a surprise.

“The sentiment at the last board meeting was very clear that they wanted an end to it,” said Audrey Campbell, who co-chairs a community advisory committee overseeing improvements to carding and bias-free policing contained in the Police and Community Engagement Review, an internal report by the force.

“The chief has gone ahead and made that decision. I will be interested to see the procedures around this decision,” said Campbell.

Blair first floated the idea of suspending carding at a PACER advisory committee meeting late last year, after he was called in to resolve an impasse between community members and senior police staff, who were resisting writing procedures that were faithful to the board policy.

Police have always defended carding as an invaluable investigative tool, a way to gather information, and PACER committee members said senior officers felt informing citizens of their rights would be a “burden.” The draft procedures also left out a narrow definition of when police could card, which was mandated by the board.

Proportionally, Toronto police data analyzed by the Star showed black Torontonians were stopped and documented to a higher degree than black people who were stopped and frisked by New York City police under a policy there that led to outrage, lawsuits and settlements.

Between 2008 and November 2013, police filled out 2.1 million contact cards, involving 1.2 million individuals. The vast majority of the contact card interactions involved no arrest or charges. Personal details — and the reasons for the stops, such as “suspicious activity” — were entered into a massive police database.

The chief told the PACER committee that he was listening and would go back to resolve the impasse, but members have never seen another draft of the procedures.

Many critics are wondering if carding is now gone for good or if it will be replaced with a similar procedure. The practice dropped dramatically in July 2013, after the board said officers had to issue receipts to individuals to record the interaction.

“All I know, it’s been suspended, so that would mean it hasn’t been terminated,” said Mike McCormack, president of the Toronto Police Association. “Until when, I don’t know.

“All we’re interested in, from an association perspective,” said McCormack, “is that there’s a balanced process between individual rights, the community’s perception and the investigative needs of the service. So what that process looks like, it’s up to the operation side or the police service to figure out.”

Morton, of the Law Union, said that the return of carding in its present form will be impossible if the Toronto Police Services Board stays true to the hiring criteria it has put in place to look for a chief to replace Blair, whose second term expires in April.

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Among other things, the board is seeking a leader with experience, education and knowledge and a “sensitivity to issues facing marginalized communities, particularly black and aboriginal communities; to victims of domestic assault; and to people in crisis,” as well as a analysis and understanding of the “root causes of crime and marginalization.”

“If the board picks the new chief based on the criteria that they’ve advertised, then whoever the person is who fits those criteria would definitely never allow anything like carding,” said Morton.

And, he added, “would definitely never allow anything like approaches by the police to individuals who are simply minding their own business.”

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