Following a report by the Ontario Human Rights Commission into the Black community's treatment by the Toronto Police Service, the agency that investigates police services in Ontario will start collecting race-based data.
The Special Investigations Unit investigates all incidents involving police where a person is seriously injured, killed, or where there are allegations of sexual assault.
The data will be collected voluntarily from both complainants and officers under investigation.
The Ontario Human Rights Commission's second interim report is part of an inquiry into racial profiling and discrimination by Toronto Police.
The commission's interim chief commissioner, Ena Chadha, said Monday, "the likelihood of a Black person being shot by police in Toronto is just as high as for a Black person in the average city in the United States."
The report found Black people are more likely to be "arrested, charged, over-charged, struck, shot, or killed by Toronto police."
The commission started its inquiry in November 2017.
Jim Hart, the chair of the Toronto Police Services Board, said the board takes the report seriously and is committed to working with the Commission to address race-based issues.
The director of the SIU, Joseph Martino, the commission's report, "buttresses the importance of race-based data."
"The systemic collection, analysis, and public reporting of this data will do much to help the public and police better understand policing and policing oversight issues, including issues related to systemic anti-Black and anti-Indigenous racism," he said.
