Victoria police use-of-force data show Indigenous ‘overrepresentation’

The Victoria Police Department says it has released race-based use-of-force data for a six-year period after being ordered by the B.C. Human Rights Commissioner to share the statistics in November 2024. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Chad Hipolito

The Victoria Police Department has released race-based data showing an “overrepresentation” of Indigenous people in cases involving police use of force over a six-year period.

But the force says the overrepresentation is also reflected in the “justice system overall,” and the data doesn’t mean officers are choosing to use force “on one specific ethnicity over another.”

The data was released Wednesday in response to an order in November from the B.C. Human Rights Commissioner for the force to share the statistics.

The police department’s “race-focused data” from 2018 to 2023 show Indigenous people were involved in 17 per cent of cases involving use of force, an “overrepresentation of Indigenous persons related to the local population.”

Less than five per cent of Victoria’s population identify as Indigenous, according to census data.

The department says it recorded 1,685 use-of-force incidents over the six-year period.

It says 1,246 of the incidents representing 74 per cent of cases involved Caucasian people, 280 involved Indigenous people, 14 involved Asian individuals, 52 involved Black people, and 64 involved Hispanic, Middle Easter or South Asian people.

The police department says the data is missing context because it does not differentiate between levels of force used by officers, or whether it was initiated by police or the subjects.

It says force ranges from “soft physical control that causes injury” to shootings.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 15, 2025.