How many street stops do Hamilton downtown cops actually do?

New numbers going in front of Hamilton's police oversight board this week overstate how often police stop and take ID from people on the street.

The inflated "street checks" numbers appear to include duplicates, such as when more than one officer isinvolved in stopping the same person but each officerfiles a report.

The numbers are part of a year-end report on the ACTION strategy and among a series of statistics outlining its achievements and successes.

It's unclear if or how many other categories of statistics meant to demonstrate the ACTION team's success might also have similar duplicationsin the report.

Police didn't answer questions Tuesday about the statistics in the report, saying through a spokeswoman that there would be a presentation on Thursday.

Previously removed

The carding "duplicates" were previously removed in a presentation last July, when then-Deputy Chief Eric Girt presented to the board about the racial makeup of the service's street checks practice.

The difference is significant.

This week's report says Hamilton Police's ACTION team did 4,803 street checks in 2012. But last summer, Girt'spresentation saidthat actually only 2,127 of those were unique street checks.

That's the difference between officers doing 13 street checks a day in Hamilton, and them actually doing six.

Police told CBC Hamilton they had "resolved" the duplicates issue for aFebruary series of articlesabout the ACTION strategy, but the new report goes back to the old numbers.

Street checks plummet in 2015

Meanwhile, street checks plummeted in 2015, but the report still appears to overstate the unique interactions between officers and individuals. The new report said there were 43 street checks last year,more than the 30 street checksdisclosed to CBC Hamilton in response to a Freedom of Information request

It's not knownifanother key statistic in the new report,the "community contacts" numbers recorded by the ACTION team nearly 80,000 last year isaffected by the same inflation factor.

In the report, the service outlines acut of half of the funding from the province that has previously gone to pay for the team,launched by former Chief Glenn De Caire in 2010 to address crime and perception of crime in downtown, Concession and McQuesten neighbourhoods.

It's the latest in a saga playing out in Hamilton and cities across Ontario about the interactions that police have with people who aren't necessarily under investigation.

But as the province clamps down on those interactions, a tension arises for teams like ACTION that have relied on proactive policing and using tools like street checks or "carding" to gather personal ID from people on the street and keep it in their databases indefinitely.

The team has been facing some big questions the funding it receives from the province, the tactics it relies on, the metrics used to judge its success (like these numbers), a ticket writing scandal that has resulted in criminal charges against some officersand the continued relevance of a downtown focus.

Crime is generally down across the board in the neighbourhoods ACTION focuses on, according to the report. The team's expanding mandate means it has been more frequently tapped to canvass after major crimes citywide and monitor parades and protests.

Moreover, the strategy has won a prestigious policing award. And the strategy includes an innovativeprogram praised for connecting vulnerable people with support.

'No longer used as a performance measure'

But there are still some questions about the strategy. For one, must Hamilton Police officers meet targets for collecting people's personal information?

From the report, it would appear as if they have in the past, at least:

"As of July 1, 2016, the number of times that an officer collects identifying information will no longer be used as a performance measure in compliance with Ontario Regulation 58/16."

The Ministry of Correctional Services and Community Safety has said that starting July 1, new rules governing interactions between police and members of the public mean that "police services will no longer be permitted to use targets/quotas for the collection of identifying information."

kelly.bennett@cbc.ca | @kellyrbennett