Just a few hours before London city council unanimously called for an end to street checks, London's police chief and the chair of the police services board held a news conference Tuesday.
They made their case for the practice of random street checks once again and gave every indication they weren't going to be swayed by council.
Street checks or carding, will always be tied to racial profiling for some but the chair of the police services board believes new regulations by the province and new training initiatives from London police should be given a chance.
"Look at this service, and all services in Ontario, being very reflective about this practice and moving forward. I would ask you to judge people by their future actions and not previous ones in this regard," says Jeannette Eberhard, police board chair.
Members of the city's own Diversity and Race Relations committee say they continue to defend an indefensible policy.
"Because they are heavily invested in defending a practice that has been statistically proven to is proportionately target people of colour, says member Forrest Bivens.
"I have made it clear that interactions with members of the public that are arbitrary racially motivated or conducted in a bias manner will not be tolerated," says Chief John Pare.
The chair of the board says she wanted Tuesday's news conference because she believes there's important information that isn't making it to the public.
For example, the reason why someone is carded isn't put on the receipt that's given to them after the stop.
She adds the reason for that is because it might put an investigation at risk, it might put public safety at risk or it might put police safety at risk.
Of course questions were raised about the timing of this news conference, whether it was intended to sway members of a city council that in recent weeks has been leaning toward calling for an end to carding.
"If better information can produce informed councillors before a debate, I think that has some value," says Eberhard.
Ultimately, city council has no control over police policies.
London council unanimously 11-0 called for an end to police street checks.
