The law is the law — and police unions across the province say once Ontario passes new regulations reining in the controversial police practice of “carding,” they will abide by them.

But as long as the regulations are under review, Ontario’s chiefs and officers are working with new urgency to halt some aspects of the proposed restrictions on street checks — rules they claim will stop officers from interacting with the public.

“Quite frankly, we don’t believe that our voice has been heard, or they are not listening to us. But we will continue to advocate on behalf of our members and what we believe is in the interest of public safety,” said Bruce Chapman, president of the Police Association of Ontario.

Chapman is compiling officers’ arguments against some of the changes, and will submit feedback to the ministry. Last week, Chapman said in a statement he is “confident that if these new rules go into effect it will significantly hamper the ability of the police to protect law-abiding citizens from potentially dangerous individuals within their communities.”

Last week, Minister of Community Safety Yasir Naqvi unveiled new limits on carding, also known as street checks — the practice of stopping, questioning and documenting citizens not suspected of a crime.

The changes have been widely hailed as progressive, historic and overdue. Many carding critics, who have called the stops a form of racial profiling, have applauded the province for taking action against a tactic they say alienates citizens and violates Charter rights against arbitrary detainment.

The draft regulations, now subject to a 45-day public review process, ban random and arbitrary stops, and create firm rules outlining how and why police may stop and question members of the public.

If the proposed regulations go ahead, police could stop, question and document the public only when they have a valid policing purpose, and must advise any individual stopped of their right to walk away.

At the end of any voluntary street check, the officer must provide a receipt showing the officer’s identity, the reason for the stop, and information about the police complaint system.

The policing community has since been raising the alarm: Toronto Police Association president Mike McCormack called the regulations “a social experiment”; Ottawa’s police chief said they will impose “significant new requirements” on officers, and the Ontario Association of Chiefs of Police (OACP) said the rules will present major challenges for police leaders.

This week, in a op-ed for the website QEW South Post, Ottawa police union president Matt Skof said police chiefs “came to the table late,” meaning critics such as criminal defence lawyers and interest groups “dominated the debate and attempted to paint a picture of biased police officers targeting individuals — particularly minority groups.”

A series of Toronto Star investigations has shown the practice disproportionately affects young black men in Toronto. In Peel Region, which includes Mississauga and Brampton, blacks are three times more likely to be carded by Peel police than whites, new data show.

In a statement to the Star Friday, Naqvi said the draft “regulation provides consistency and clarity for police services across the province while allowing them to do the important work that they do every day to keep our communities safe.”

How carding has changed over the years

None of the police unions say they take issue with the ban on arbitrary or random stops by police. But they want the province to scale back the requirement to inform the public they don’t need to comply. They also have concerns about receipts.

The police associations claim few people will willingly co-operate with police and provide information, and soon officers will stop engaging with the public.

“Everyone should be aware of their rights, but the government has acknowledged that there are situations where it would not be prudent or safe to inform people of their rights,” Chapman, the PAO president, said in a statement.

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In an interview, Chapman said his organization is preparing a new position paper in response to the draft regulations. “The urgency is, we don’t believe the vast majority of Ontario knows what potentially could happen by adding this regulation,” he said.

Chapman adds that the requirement to provide information about how to complain to Ontario’s police watchdog, the Office of the Independent Police Review Director (OIPRD), could “lead to a vast increase in the number of frivolous and vexatious complaints made against police.”

Several police forces have said information collected during street checks can prove invaluable to investigations. But they have come under fire for providing only anecdotal evidence to show the tool’s efficacy.

In Peel, Police Chief Jennifer Evans could provide just six examples of when street checks helped solve crimes, and internal documents show she searched for three years to find proof that carding helps solve crimes.

Niagara Regional Police Chief Jeff McGuire, president of the Ontario Association of Chiefs of Police, says he has advised the minister that he feels the regulations are “going to have a negative impact on public safety.”

The OACP executive — which includes Ottawa Chief Charles Bordeleau and Peel Chief Evans — will probably meet next week to discuss next steps, McGuire said, and the OACP will submit written feedback.

“We’ve admitted and we know that there have been problems in the past and we’re working hard to correct that. But the swing of the pendulum, we fear honestly, on behalf of the OACP, is going to handcuff the police in a manner that meaningful conversations between law-abiding citizens are going to maybe just disappear.”

Anthony Morgan, a policy expert with the African Canadian Legal Clinic, says he doesn’t understand why police are so heavily invested in “a practice that has proven fruitless.”

“We do not have the stats to show that this is actually a meaningful use of resources,” he said. “If (police) have concerns about how this will impact them, maybe they can start thinking more creatively about how to more effectively engage communities.”

Knia Singh, a law student who has launched a Charter challenge to police carding, says the new regulations will not stop police from speaking to people in the community. They’re aimed at eliminating the kinds of encounters he and others have been concerned about: non-criminal stops.

“What we know, what the data show, what experience shows, is that police stop people of colour,” Singh said. “They stop black people, specifically young black males in non-criminal contexts, and they use their power of authority to intimidate and elicit information that they shouldn’t be getting.”