12 BOOST UP. Book your booster today. Protect yourself against COVID-19.agains It's up to all of us. Paid for by the Government of Ontario Visit ontario.ca/covid19 Black and Middle Eastern men are "over-represented" in use of force incidents involving Durham Region police officers, an analysis of data from 2020 indicates. More than a fifth of the incidents recorded during the year involved Black people, the report, which is based on use of force reports filed by Durham officers, concludes. White people were involved in 61 per cent of the incidents, and 10 per cent involved people identified as "other race." "The analysis reveals that Black, Middle Eastern, and male subjects were over-represented in use of force incidents," the report concludes. But the raw data alone shouldn't lead to a conclusion that racial profiling is at the root of the incidents, according to the report, reviewed Tuesday, Dec. 21 by members of the Durham Regional Police Services Board. "Racial disparities in any one factor do not alone provide conclusive evidence of racial profiling," says the analysis. "The results of this analysis will be instructive, rather than conclusive, serving as a starting point to guide the formation of an action plan and accountability framework to address any opportunities for organizational improvement at DRPS." Board member Patrice Barnes echoed that sentiment, expressing hope that the preliminary data can assist the police service toward its goal of accountability to the community. "I'm hoping we're taking some lessons learned," she said. "I'm interested to see what our next steps are and how we dig down on this data ... and make change." The report, based on reports filed with the province, found that Durhamofficers attended approximately 180,600 calls for service in 2020 and that 237 incidents, involving 332 civilians, involved one or more levels of use of force (there were a total of 259 use of force incidents during the year, 22 involving animals). "This represents an extremely low incident rate (0.1%) when put into context of all calls in 2020 with citizen contact," the report states. The analysis found that none of the incidents had resulted in findings of excessive use of force. A breakdown of the data indicated that 145 incidents, 61 per cent of the total reported, involved White people, while 53, or 22 per cent, involved Black individuals. Another 23 incidents -- 10 per cent -- involved people classified as being in other race categories. The majority of the incidents -- 87.5 per cent -- involved males, and the average age of people subjected to use of force was 30.6 years, the study found. The report indicates more study, including mining of data from more interactions with the public, is needed to further analyze the scope of the issue and form the basis of policy recommendations. "The relationship between law enforcement and the people they serve must be based on trust," the report concludes. "Ultimately, Durham Regional Police Service's Race-Based Data Collection Strategy is a step towards building public trust and community safety through greater transparency, equity, and non-discriminatory policing." BOARD REVIEWS REPORT ON POLICE USE OF FORCE STATISTICS JEFF MITCHELL jmitchell@ durhamregion.com NEWS Staffing shortages due to COVID-19 means GO Transit will be adjusting train service schedules in Durham Region starting Monday, Jan. 10. Trains will continue to run every 15 to 30 minutes during the morning and afternoon weekday rush hours and into the midday along the Lakeshore East line in Durham. Some weekday evening service will be reduced, with trains running every 30 minutes. There are no changes to weekend service, said Metrolinx, which runs the GO service. In a statement, Metrolinx noted, "While these changes are temporary, we do appreciate your understanding and patience during this challenging time. We will continue to closely monitor staffing levels and ridership and will provide as much notice as possible if additional changes to our service are required." Customers are urged to check the GO Transit website before traveling to get the most up-to-date schedule information. Visit www.gotransit.com/en/trip-planning/ seeschedules/full-schedules to get more information. GO SERVICE REDUCTIONS IN DURHAM START JAN. 10