When does Star report race of suspects wanted by police?: Public Editor

A reader’s good question about the Toronto Star’s reporting of the race of suspects wanted by police raised relevant points demanding further inquiry.

“I am curious about the application of the Toronto Star’s policy on naming the race of suspects,” the reader, who works in the field of human rights law, told me last week. “The description of yesterday’s sexual assault suspect does not mention his race (he appears to be white), in contrast with an earlier story identifying a suspect as black.

“Admittedly, I am more than curious – the ways in which race and suspects are reported can feed into stereotypes about race, propensity and crime,” said the woman, who preferred not to be named in this column.

She is right of course. The media’s depiction of race can have a significant impact on the perception of race in our community. Particularly when it comes to depictions of race and crime.

The Star has long decreed that “no reference, direct or indirect, should be made to a person’s race, colour or religion unless it is pertinent to the story.”

Our policy on racial references makes some exception in the case of a missing person or a criminal suspect at large. In such cases, the policy states, “there may be justification for identifying race or colour as part of a full description that provides as many details as possible. Avoid vague descriptions that serve no purpose.”

This reader pointed out two descriptions of suspects published recently in the Star. As she indicated, a Sept. 18 report of a man wanted for sexual assault made no reference to race in stating that, “The suspect, shown in a security camera picture, is described as about 25 to 35, 5-foot-9 to six feet tall, with medium build and brown hair. He was wearing a red gold shirt, navy blue shorts and brown thong sandals.”

On July 30 however, the Star published a report that did include the race of a suspect wanted in connection with a shooting in Christie Pits Park that left several people injured. “Police have released a photo of a suspect, who was participating in the fitness class, police say. He is described as a black man, 25 to 30-years-old, five-foot-eight to five-foot-nine with short cornrows that were visible from beneath his baseball cap.” The Star did not publish the full description of the man’s clothing, as provided by police, nor did it include the fact that police considered the suspect to be “armed and dangerous.”

The first article in the Star was accompanied by a photo of the suspect — clearly a white man. The second article did not include publication of the suspect photo released by police – likely because it was a blurry, poor quality image.

As I told this reader, generally, the descriptions of suspects published in the Star come directly from police news releases. Still, I told her, there is a strong need for the Star to be consistent about how it reports these sensitive matters, regardless of what information police provide to reporters.

The Toronto police force has its own policies on when it might include the race of suspects in its news releases.

“Our policy is clear: where we have a picture in which a suspect’s face is clearly visible we will not attach a racial descriptor to it,” spokesman Mark Pugash told me. “We want to go with the best possible evidence and a good clear photo is always best.

“If there is no clear picture, we will go with the description given to police by witnesses or victims,” Pugash said, adding that the security camera images of the suspect sought in the July 30 article did not provide a clear image of the suspect.

In such cases when photos are not available or of poor quality, police news releases may well state that a suspect is white, black, brown or use other racialized descriptors that could aid in a member of the public identifying the suspect. Indeed in looking through the archive of police news releases, you can find all such descriptions.

Like the Star, police policy calls for avoiding vague descriptions of suspects. “The information we put out has to enable someone to recognize someone,” Pugash said.

Of course, much of this is subjective. What police regard as a full description may not rise to the level required by the Star. The Star’s newsroom must always be aware of our own policy and values in determining whether there is justification in reporting the race of suspects and not automatically include such information simply because police have put it in a news release.

Certainly, as a news organization committed to equal dignity for all, the Star bears considerable responsibility to guard against reinforcing unfair racial stereotypes.