Indigenous Calgarians overrepresented in crimes, missing person cases: report

Indigenous people in Calgary are overrepresented in missing persons, violent crimes and interactions with police, a new report suggests.

The trend comes from the newly released Calgary Police Service's Race Data Analysis reports, which compile data collected during interactions with police officers and the public.

The data focuses on two elements – disproportionality and disparity. Disproportionality refers to groups being underrepresented of overrepresented while disparity identifies inequal treatment or outcomes experienced by different groups.

According to the analysis, CPS found Indigenous individuals, particularly women and girls, were more likely to be victims of crime or the subject of missing persons cases.

"Female Indigenous youth with chronic histories are the most overrepresented group (in missing persons cases," CPS said in a news release.

"Indigenous female victims of assault, robbery and sex offences are disproportionately higher than their population proportion."

Indigenous Calgarians are 2.5 times more likely to be victims of violent crimes, CPS said.

The report also concluded that police officers have more interactions – called officer contacts – with members of Calgary's Indigenous community than any other group, although it's understood that those contacts don't always "involve aspects of criminality."

"Indigenous females are significantly overrepresented in officer contacts, with a disparity increasing from five times in 2018 to 13.7 times in 2023 compared to White females," CPS said.

When it comes to offenders, Indigenous individuals are again overrepresented, officials said.

"Indigenous individuals are six times, and Black individuals are two times overrepresented among offenders," police said, adding that men account for 75 per cent of offenders.

Police say the data in the reports are expected to "better equip officers in their interactions with the community."

"The collection of race-based data has been a priority for our Commission, and we are grateful to everyone that has worked hard to get us to this point," said Shawn Cornett, Chair of the Calgary Police Commission.

"Race-based data helps us better understand areas where some communities are experiencing policing differently than others, and it makes it possible to track the effectiveness of the ongoing work in this area."

Police say the overrepresentation of Indigenous people in missing persons cases has already sparked the creation of an Indigenous community navigator within the CPS missing persons team.