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Halifax police chief acknowledges ‘shock’ Black woman felt when wrongly arrested

Jan. 5, 2022, Halifax, N.S. – Halifax’s police chief says he thinks a Black woman who was mistakenly surrounded by police cruisers and arrested late at night likely experienced a “shock.”

Chief Dan Kinsella testified today during a Police Review Board hearing into Kayla Borden’s complaint of racial profiling in connection with her arrest on July 28, 2020, at about 1 a.m.

Borden was driving home when she was stopped by multiple patrol cars, arrested and handcuffed, before she was released when an officer came to the scene and clarified that they had the wrong car and person.

Kinsella directly addressed Borden today, saying, “It’s not lost on me how impactful the interaction was, the shock factor,” adding that he believed the officers’ apology at the scene “came from a sincere place.”

Outside the hearing, Borden said she didn’t feel at the time that the officers’ apology sufficed, adding that unless there are disciplinary sanctions Black citizens will continue to be unnecessarily targeted.

Borden said she was surrounded by police cruisers at a traffic light, was instructed to open her door and was handcuffed before she was read her Charter rights or told why the arrest was taking place.

Last year, two officers involved in the arrest – Const. Jason Meisner and Const. Scott Martin – testified before the review board that Borden’s car was close to the description of a dark-coloured Pontiac that had fled a traffic stop in the city’s west end.

However, the lawyer for Borden, Asaf Rashid, said outside the hearing today that other officers involved in the initial response had broadcast over the police radio system that the suspect was male and wearing a baseball cap. Rashid said the officers did not say the suspect was Black.