A Study of Criminal History Records, as Maintained by the RCMP

STUDY OF THE CRIMINAL HISTORY RECORDS

AS MAINTAINED BY THE RCMP

May 1996

1. INTRODUCTION

The focus of this study was limited to the criminal history records (CHR) as they are maintained by the RCMP. It is important for any reader of this report to understand that although the RCMP maintains personal information in a number of other information banks, only the information described in bank CMP PPU 030, Criminal History Records and Identification Fingerprints, was reviewed during the course of this study.

It must also be noted that this is not a study of the Canadian Police Information Centre (CPIC) system. Since the CHR is accessible to authorized users through CPIC, this system was examined but only as one method of obtaining access to the CHR.

Statistical information relating to the management of the CHR by the RCMP (such as numbers of files, numbers of entries, etc.) has been compiled in addendum "A" to this report. All figures have been provided by the RCMP and represent average yearly activity.

2. GOALS OF STUDY:

This report was drafted in accordance with the following goals as determined by the Criminal History Study (CHR) Advisory Committee:

- to determine what personal information is held by the RCMP in this information holding,

- to examine and report on the management of this information, and

- to produce a complete list of uses and disclosure of personal information contained in the CHR.

The CHR Advisory Committee also determined that the following questions and issues should be addressed during this study:

- define "criminal history record" and its relationship to CPIC

- determine what elements of personal information comprise the CHR

- determine if bank description in Info Source is accurate

- determine how information is added to the CHR and by whom

- determine how stays of prosecution are handled

- verify controls on accuracy of information

- determine who has access to information in the CHR and under what conditions

- determine how individuals can get access to their own information

- determine what processes exist for correction of information by individuals

- determine how information relating to pardons and revocations is handled

- determine how information is removed from the CHR when the retention period has elapsed.

3. METHODOLOGY:

During the course of this study, existing RCMP policies and procedures were reviewed, briefings were received on the operations of the RCMP Criminal History Section, and 10 managers and employees of the Criminal History Section were interviewed. In addition to answering questions, members of the Criminal History Section also demonstrated, in great detail, the processes involved in creating and maintaining the CHR. A representative sample of information contained in the CHR was also examined.

Additionally, representatives from the Ontario Provincial Police and the Ottawa-Carleton regional Police Force were interviewed. Results of the study were also compared to the RCMP's responses to the information sharing survey.

A list of individuals who were interviewed is attached as addendum "B".

4. DEFINITION OF CRIMINAL HISTORY RECORD:

According to the 1987 Solicitor General Ministerial Directive on release of criminal record information by the RCMP, "Criminal Record Information means criminal records, fingerprints and photographs maintained by the RCMP." For the purposes of this report, a more accurate definition would be that the CHR is an information holding (both EDP and hard copy) which contains information relating to certain criminal charges brought against individuals, and the disposition of those charges.

In accordance with RCMP policy, all information in the CHR must be supported by fingerprints. Since the Identification of Criminals Act only allows the taking of fingerprints in relation to indictable or hybrid offences (hybrid offences are those where the courts can proceed either by indictment or by summary conviction), the current CHR contains only information relating to these two categories of offences.

There is currently no legislation (with the exception of the Young Offenders Act) that requires police agencies or courts to report criminal charges and dispositions to the RCMP for inclusion in the CHR. Since not all police forces and courts take the time and effort to send this information to the RCMP, the current CHR cannot be considered a complete criminal history. Although the RCMP has never done a study to determine what percentage of all charges are reported and what percentage are not reported, the feeling of staff of the Criminal History Section is that a significant number are not reported to them.

It is therefore important to remember that, when we refer to the CHR as maintained by the RCMP, we are only speaking about those charges and dispositions that have been reported to the RCMP Criminal History Section. This might represent an individual's complete criminal history or it might represent only a portion of it, and there is no real method of determining the completeness of the CHR.

Although the CPIC documentation concerning the CHR describes a number of different types of CHR (CRII - full criminal record, CRS - criminal records synopsis, CNI - criminal name index), there is in fact only one database and the information for each type of criminal record is drawn from this source. Since the different types of criminal records are determined by the level of detail requested, they are described in detail in the Access Section of this report.

5. MANDATE:

Except for the authorities listed below, no comprehensive mandate for the creation and maintenance of a CHR by the RCMP could be found during this study.

The Criminal Records Act authorizes the Commissioner of the RCMP to hold and maintain records relating to pardons and discharges:

Section 6(1)

The Minister may, by order in writing addressed to any person having custody or control of any judicial record of a conviction in respect of which a pardon has been granted, require that person to deliver that record into the custody of the Commissioner.

Section 6(2)

Any record of a conviction in respect of which a pardon has been granted that is in the custody of the Commissioner (of the RCMP) or of any department or agency of the Government of Canada shall be kept separate and apart from other criminal records, and no such record shall be disclosed to any person, nor shall the existence of the record or the fact of the conviction be disclosed to any person, without the prior approval of the Minister.

Section 6.1(1)

No record of a discharge under section 736 of the Criminal Code that is in the custody of the Commissioner .... shall be disclosed to any person .....

Section 6.1(2)

The Commissioner shall remove all references to a discharge under section 637 of the Criminal Code from the automated criminal conviction records retrieval system maintained by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police ....

Authority for the creation and maintenance of a system containing information relating to criminal charges is also contained in the Young Offenders Act:

Section 41(1)

A record of any offence of which a young person has been found guilty under this Act may be kept in such central repository as the Commissioner of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police may, from time to time, designate for the purpose of keeping criminal history files or records on offenders or keeping records for the identification of offenders.

Section 41(2)

Where a young person is found guilty of an offence under this Act, the police force responsible for the investigation of the offence shall provide a record of the offence, including the original or a copy of any fingerprints or photographs of the young person taken by or on behalf of the police force, for inclusion in any central repository designated pursuant to subsection (1).

Other than in the instances listed above, the creation and maintenance, by the RCMP, of a CHR which includes information provided by contributing agencies appears to stem from its historical role as a federal police force.

This was confirmed by my sources at the RCMP who said that their role as custodian of this information relates to a ministerial order issued in the early 1900s that decreed that the NorthWest Mounted Police would maintain a record of criminal convictions relating to individuals. Although this ministerial order is no longer valid, the RCMP has continued in this role.

Additionally, with the exception of section 41(2) of the Young Offenders Act (see above), no legislation appears to exist compelling police agencies to provide information for the RCMP's CHR system.

6. PERSONAL INFORMATION CONTAINED IN CHR

The CHR, as maintained by the RCMP, is comprised of the following elements of personal information:

FPS Number:.......The sequential number assigned to the individual's fingerprints - this automatically becomes the unique identifier for the individual

Cautionary:.......Notations put on record by police agency to warn other agencies

Warnings:.........Of possible difficulties regarding this individual. Possible warnings are: Violence, Escape Custody, Mental Instability, or Attempted Suicide.

Sex:..............Male or Female

Race:.............White or Non-White

Date of Birth:....DOB

Place of Birth:...Province or Territory

Age:..............Calculated from DOB

Eyes:.............Colour of eyes

Height:...........Metric Height

Weight:...........Metric Weight

Distinguishing:...Any marks or scars that could assist in the identification of the individual

Marks or Scars:...Individual

Subject History:..List of all charges and disposition, including convictions, acquittals and dismissals, but excluding any for which a pardon has been granted.

Family Name:......

Surname:..........

Aliases:..........Other names under which the individual is known

7. INPUT INTO CHR:

As indicated in the Description and Mandate Sections, with the exception of the Young Offenders Act, there is no legislation requiring the reporting of all charges and dispositions to the RCMP. Nevertheless, the RCMP receives information for the CHR from most police forces in Canada, from provincial and federal correctional institutions and in some cases from foreign agencies.

Input from foreign agencies is limited to cases where an individual has been found guilty of an offence in the originating country and the individual has been transferred to Canada to complete his sentence. In such cases, only the charges that are also offences under the Criminal Code of Canada are entered. All other charges are disregarded.

In accordance with RCMP policy, no entry into the CHR (creation of new file or update of current file) is accepted unless it is supported by a current set of fingerprints that has been certified by the Certification Unit within the Fingerprint Operations Section.

With the exception of the first set of fingerprints, which is used to create the FPS file, the RCMP will not make any entry into the CHR unless the originating agency has provided information regarding the disposition of the charge. In the case of a first charge, the RCMP will accept the information without a disposition. The RCMP will maintain this information in the CHR system for a maximum of five years or until a disposition is provided. At the end of the five years, if no disposition has been received, the RCMP will remove the information unless there are outstanding warrants related to the charge.

In all other cases where the contributing agency has not provided information regarding the disposition of a charge, the form is returned to the contributing agency with instructions to provide the necessary information. Although the RCMP has instituted a number of controls to ensure the accuracy of their input (see below), it has to rely completely on the accuracy of the information provided by the contributing agency. Owing to the amount of information that it receives each day for the CHR, unless the information contains evident inaccuracies, the RCMP has no method of verifying the accuracy of the information. In cases where there are evident inaccuracies, the contributing agency is asked to provide supporting documentation.

The RCMP was asked what happens to information regarding the disposition of a charge when either the person concerned or the prosecutor appeals the verdict of the court and the disposition of the charge is changed. The RCMP representative who was interviewed stated that when the RCMP is informed that a disposition has been changed on appeal, this new information is added to the CHR but the previous entry is not removed. The representative also ventured an opinion that, since most input originates from police agencies and since in most cases the police agencies are not involved in appeals, only about 50 percent of the changes to dispositions resulting from appeals are reported to the RCMP.

New entries to the CHR are done on a temporary database. These new entries are not released to the main database, the one accessible through CPIC, until the input has been verified in accordance with the procedures outlined below.

In summary the process for input regarding an individual who already has a CHR is as follows:

- RCMP receives by mail a fingerprint form with information about criminal charges

- Fingerprint Operations certifies the fingerprints as belonging to the individual in question

- certified form sent to Records Maintenance Unit (RMU) for input

- RMU clerk retrieves microfiche file and EDP file

- RMU clerk verifies the existing entries in EDP system with information contained in microfiched documents

- if any discrepancies found, RMU clerk corrects them

- RMU clerk verifies that charges and dispositions are properly entered on new fingerprint form (all clerks are trained regarding the proper coding of offences and the possible dispositions related to offences)

- if minor errors are found, RMU clerk tries to resolve them with originating agency

- if RMU clerk is unable to resolve discrepancies, form is referred to Records Analysis Unit for further work to resolve ( No entries are made into CHR until all discrepancies are resolved)

- once all discrepancies are resolved, new entries are made into CHR

- information relating to general information about the individual is entered in Zone "A" of the CHR, information relating to charges where the individual is found guilty is entered in Zone "B" and all other information is entered in Zone "C"

- all entries made by new RMU clerks are verified by supervisor or senior clerk

- spot checks of entries made by experienced RMU clerks are done

The process for the creation of a new CHR is similar to the one described above with the exception that the RMU clerk must enter the tombstone data about the individual.

This study found that the input process possesses a number of safeguards to reduce the possibility of incorrect information being entered. In summary these are:

1) no information is entered into the CHR unless positive identification has been effected through the certification of fingerprints;

2) input forms are reviewed by trained clerks to ensure that charges and dispositions conform with current legislation and practices;

3) no entries are made until all discrepancies have been resolved;

4) before entering new charges, clerks verify existing charges by comparing the microfiche documents with the information currently in the EDP system and no new information is entered until any discrepancies have been resolved;

5) verification of input is done (100 percent verification for new clerks, spot checks for experienced clerks);

6) all input is done to a temporary database and the information is not released to the on-line system until it has been verified;

7) in addition to the above, the computer system has internal processes which verify that only valid information is entered in certain fields (Ex. the system will only accept Criminal Code section numbers that refer to charges that are indictable or hybrid).

Interviews with employees of the Criminal History Section revealed that they all share a very real appreciation of the possible impact on individuals of any errors in the CHR and that every effort is made to ensure that all input is accurate.

Although no system can provide 100 percent assurance that errors will not occur, the author of this report believes that the RCMP has in place more than adequate processes and procedures to ensure that most errors are discovered and corrected before the information is released to users. The author also could not think of any additional procedures that would assist the RCMP in reducing the possibility of errors.

8. ACCESS TO CHR:

Access to the CHR is governed by the Ministerial Directive - Release of Criminal Record Information by the RCMP which was issued by the Solicitor General in May 1987. This Directive states that information contained in the CHR may be released to:

1) law enforcement bodies for use in their official duties,

2) insurance crime prevention bureaux to assist in investigating insurance crimes,

3) research groups for studies related to law enforcement,

4) parole and corrections agencies in their official duties,

5) departmental security officers, External Affairs and Corps of Commissionaires for security clearance purposes,

6) individuals concerned in accordance with the Privacy Act,

7) Citizenship Registration Branch for evaluation of citizenship applicants,

8) Department of Agriculture for vetting of race track employees,

9) Licensing authorities for license applicants, and

10) Agencies authorized under the Young Offenders Act.

Sources within the RCMP have indicated that the Directive is currently being revised in conjunction with the Solicitor General of Canada and the Department of Justice.

Although an individual can access his/her CHR either formally under the Privacy Act or informally and although an individual can authorize access by a third party, as in the case of a security/reliability screening, most instances of access to the CHR are without the consent of the individual concerned and are done mainly through the CPIC system. All access without consent is governed by the 1987 Solicitor General Ministerial Directive.

Following is a brief description of the various methods of access to an individual's CHR:

8.1 Access by Individual:

An individual can request access to his/her CHR at any time. Although this right is recognized in the Privacy Act , the RCMP also regularly accepts informal requests for this type of information. National Parole Board policies and procedures also require that an individual request his/her CHR when he/she is making a pardon application.

Although current RCMP policies and procedures provide for charging an individual for taking fingerprints in support of an informal request for his CHR, current practice within the RCMP is to inform the individual that the cost for fingerprinting does not apply if the request is made under the Privacy Act.

Members of the Ottawa-Carleton Regional Police and the Ontario Provincial Police stated during interviews that whenever an individual approaches them for a copy of his/her CHR, he/she is directed to make a Privacy Act request to the RCMP. In fact, it appears to be common practice among police forces to refer individuals to the RCMP. The persons interviewed also said that should an individual insist on getting his/her CHR from the police force in question, the individual will be given copy only of those charges that the police force in question has processed. The police force will never provide information about charges that have been processed by another police force.

Another common reason that motivates requests for copies of a CHR is to satisfy employment screening requirements. Whenever an individual requests his CHR, he/she will be given a complete printout which includes all entries, even those for which he/she was acquitted. Upon request, the RCMP will also provide an individual with only a portion of his CHR. If an individual indicates to the RCMP that he/she requires a copy of only convictions in their CHR, the RCMP will provide him/her with only the information relating to convictions. If there are no convictions, a letter to this effect will be given to the individual.

8.2 Access with Consent of Individual:

In some circumstances, the most common being for a security or reliability screening, an individual may authorize the RCMP to release information about him/her to a third party.

In such cases, the institution requesting the screening will usually provide the RCMP with the name and certain other tombstone information relating to the individual concerned. Using this information, the RCMP will do a search in the Criminal Name Index, which is only a subset of the information in the CHR. If this search indicates that there may be a CHR on the individual concerned, the institution will be advised of the possibility that a CHR may exist and will be asked to provide a copy of the individual's fingerprints before any further information is disclosed.

Once the fingerprint form has been received and processed, the RCMP will complete their search of the CHR system. Although RCMP policy states that the complete CHR should be given to the requester, in many instances only information relevant to the employment sought will be disclosed. RCMP members who were interviewed said that this is done in order not to adversely affect an individual's employment prospects.

8.3 Access through CPIC

Although the CHR is only one of many databases accessible through CPIC, the CHR has proven to be such an invaluable tool in police agencies' efforts to reduce and investigate criminal activity that requests through CPIC account for the vast majority of requests to the CHR.

The CPIC system provides for three categories of agencies:

Category I agencies are those that have full peace officer status under provincial or federal legislation, whose primary role is law enforcement and that have received approval of the CPIC Advisory Committee. Although the RCMP was unable to provide us with a list of Category I agencies, I was assured that it can safely be assumed that all provincial and most municipal police forces have direct access to the CHR through CPIC.

Category II agencies are those with a limited law enforcement under federal or provincial legislation (ex. customs agents, immigration agents) and that have received approval of the CPIC Advisory Committee. A list of all Category II agencies is attached as Addendum "C". All these agencies have complete access to the CHR through CPIC.

Category III agencies are those that have no direct law enforcement authority but that provide assistance to law enforcement agencies. A complete list of Category III agencies is attached as Addendum "D". Of the Category III agencies only the Canadian Security Intelligence Service has access to the CHR through CPIC.

As briefly discussed in the Definition Section of this report, the CPIC documentation describes three different types of CHR. In fact, all the information is contained in one master database and the different types of CHR refer only to different levels of access depending on the amount of detail required.

CRII - Full Criminal Record:

A query to CPIC using this level will provide the requester with all the information contained in the CHR including all the tombstone information, the conviction history, and any other police related information. Since this is the most detailed reply, it is also the one that takes the most time to produce.

All output produced by this type of request contains a warning that the identity of the individual in question has not been confirmed by fingerprints and should be used only for investigative purposes and not for presentation in court.

CRS - Criminal Record Synopsis:

A query to CPIC using this level will provide the requester with a partial CHR. This record will consist of tombstone information and a list of criminal convictions only.

The output produced by this type of request also contains a warning regarding the lack of verification by fingerprints.

CNI - Criminal Name Index

A query to CPIC using this level will provide the requester with only an indication as to the existence of a CHR on the individual in question.

As noted above, all CPIC output from the CHR contains a notation that the information is not to be used as a statement of fact since the identity of the individual who is the subject of the request has not been confirmed by fingerprints.

Addendum "A" contains statistics regarding the number of times that the CHR database was accessed through CPIC in 1995. The RCMP has confirmed that these numbers are fairly consistent from year to year. The numbers represent all requests by all CPIC agencies that have access to the CHR. Although the RCMP could, by examining tapes of transactions, provide figures regarding access by each category of CPIC agency, this would require a major programming effort on the RCMP's part.

It is important to remember that these numbers represent the total number of times that a request was made to the CHR database through the CPIC system. A request might result in the production of a CHR or it might result in a message indicating that no CHR exists.

Also in many cases, since a Criminal Name Index request provides the quickest results, a requester might make this type of request to determine if a CHR might exist on an individual before making a more detailed request for a complete CHR. This activity would result in two requests to the CHR database being recorded.

In spite of the controls in place, such as periodic audits, the CPIC system can still be considered the method of access to the CHR that is most open to abuse or misuse. The RCMP is aware of this and the new version of CPIC currently being developed is supposed to contain additional controls that should eliminate some of the problems that have been encountered in the past.

8.4 Access by Law Enforcement Agencies to Certified CHR

Upon request from a law enforcement agency, supported by a fingerprint form, the RCMP will provide a document called a "Certificate of Conviction" which contains a list of all charges for which the individual in question has been found guilty (and for which no pardon has been granted). This document is usually requested by a police agency to present to a judge during court proceedings relating to a new charge.

8.5 Access by Foreign or International Agencies:

Under reciprocal arrangements, access to the CHR at times is requested by foreign or international agencies. This may stem from the arrest of a Canadian in a foreign country or it may stem from a non-Canadian having engaged in criminal activity both in Canada and in another country. All requests must be related to an ongoing criminal investigation.

Although some foreign and international agencies (Interpol, FBI) have access to CPIC, through computer terminals, this access is not direct and is controlled by an employee of the Interpol Section at RCMP HQ. This person sits at a computer terminal and no request is actioned by CPIC until he presses the proper key to release the request. Electronic requests resulting in a "no hit" response are returned without intervention but all positive responses are reviewed by an RCMP Interpol employee before they are released to any foreign entity to ensure that no unauthorized information, such as young offender data, is released.

9. CORRECTION RIGHTS

The RCMP recognizes an individual's right under the Privacy Act to request a correction to information contained in his CHR. In fact, in keeping with the RCMP's goal of ensuring that all information in the CHR is accurate, they also accept informal complaints from individuals regarding the accuracy of the CHR.

Whenever it receives a request for correction or complaint regarding the accuracy of information in the CHR, the RCMP refers to the microfiche which contains a copy of the original document supporting the disputed entry in the CHR. If it is discovered at this stage that an input error has been made, it is corrected immediately.

If the microfiche confirms the information in the CHR, the RCMP will contact the contributing agency and request that it provide the RCMP with supporting documents, such as court records, to support the information that it had previously submitted for inclusion in the CHR.

If it is found that the contributing agency made a mistake in the information that had been submitted, the new corrected information is entered in the CHR and all traces of the old information is removed. If, on the other hand, the contributing agency cannot provide clear documentation to support the entry, it is completely removed from the system.

In the event that the contributing agency can provide documentation to prove the accuracy of the information, the RCMP accept the information as presented by the contributing agency and no change or notation is placed in the CHR. According to the Staff Sergeant in charge of the unit that provides this service, once a requester has been advised that documentation was provided to support the entry in the CHR, no requester has ever pursued the matter by requesting that a notation be placed on the file.

10. RETENTION AND DISPOSAL OF INFORMATION IN CHR

This section of the report deals with the length of time that information is retained by the RCMP in an individual's criminal history record and the criteria that govern its removal from the CHR. In accordance with approved retention and disposal criteria and the provisions of the Privacy Act, all information in the CHR is assigned a purge date at which time the information is to be removed from the system.

It is important to note that even if the RCMP purges information from its system and in many cases advises the contributing agency that the information has been purged, the RCMP has no way of ensuring that the contributing agency has purged the information from their own files and systems. This means that information concerning an individual's dealings with the criminal justice system could exist in another agency's files long after the RCMP has purged the information from its systems.

This retention and disposal portion of the CHR information life cycle has two components: 1) what happens to hard copy documents provided by contributors, and 2) what happens to information once it has been entered into the system.

10.1 Hard copy documents provided by contributors:

As described in the Input Section of this report, input into the CHR is provided to the RCMP almost exclusively on hard copy documents. These documents are microfilmed by the RCMP after being entered into the database.

Once the original documents have been microfilmed, they are retained for a three month period in case there are questions regarding the legibility of the microfilmed documents. At the end of this three month period, the original documents are shredded.

The only exception to this practice is the first fingerprint form submitted on a particular individual. The RCMP retains this form in the Fingerprint Operations Section for as long as the individual's CHR exists. This form is used by the Fingerprint Operations Section as a final validation of an individual's identity whenever additional input is received.

10.2 Purging of information in system

Each individual charge or disposition entered into an individual's CHR has an automatic purge date. This purge date is generated automatically by the database system in accordance with criteria that are contained in various acts such as the Criminal Code of Canada, the Young Offenders Act, the Criminal Records Act, etc..

The system automatically generates a list every month of entries that must be purged. Using this list, staff of the Criminal History Section of the RCMP draw the microfiche files, verify that the entries can be purged under established purge criteria, purge the entries from the database, and remove and destroy the microfiche of the documents that relate to the entries in question. If the entry to be purged is the only one (or the last one) on an individual's CHR, all information relating to this individual is removed from the CHR system and all hard copy documents maintained by the RCMP, including the master fingerprint form, are destroyed. This means that the individual in question no longer has a CHR nor is there any record in the RCMP systems that the individual ever had a criminal history record.

As indicated above, criteria for the purging of information in the CHR is contained in various acts and these criteria vary greatly depending on the type of offence and the Act under which it was prosecuted. Following are the basic criteria that govern the purging of information:

Young Offenders:

Section 45 of the Young Offenders Act provides for the destruction of information relating to charges under this Act after between one to five yearsdepending on the type of offence. As indicated above, the CHR computer program is programmed to automatically assign purge dates to any entry relating to this Act. This program is modified every time an amendment is passed to the Act that affects either the types of offence or the retention criteria.

Criminal Code Offences with Disposition:

As indicated in the Input Section of this report, only charges that proceed by indictment or that are classed as hybrid offences are entered in the CHR. The use of the terms violent and non-violent is as defined in the Criminal Code of Canada and the purging criteria is the same regardless of the disposition of the charge. The following purging criteria therefore apply only to these types of offences:

- immediately upon positive proof that an individual is deceased (complete file purged),

- for violent charges, age 70 if no violent charges registered in previous 10 years, otherwise 10 years after last violent charge,

- for non-violent charges, 15 years if no other violent charges have been registered,

Criminal Code Offences with No Disposition (Stays of Proceedings):

In some cases, no disposition is recorded for a particular charge. This most often occurs where there is a stay of proceedings. In such cases, the information is purged from the system under the following conditions:

- following request from contributing agency to purge the information,

- after five years if it is a charge related to a non-violent crime and if no further activity has been recorded.

In all other circumstances, such as for charges related to violent crimes and where other charges have been reported, the information is not purged unless a request is received from the contributing agency. This means that the information stays in the CHR until the individual reaches 70 years of age.

Analysts with the RCMP said that information relating to stays of proceedings can be removed from the CHR if an individual requests the removal and gets the approval of the contributing police agency. In over 90 percent of the cases the originating police force agrees to the removal.

Diversion:

In 1979, the Solicitor General of Canada announced a new program in which he encouraged all provinces to adopt a new method of disposing of charges against certain individuals who did not represent a threat to society and who had been charged with relatively minor offences, this method is called diversion.

A number of provinces have since adopted this program and in June 15, 1995, Parliament passed an amendment to the Criminal Code (section 717) which recognizes this alternative method of sentencing.

Under this method, if an accused person admits to the charge against him/her, meets the criteria established by the program and agrees to fulfil certain obligations (provide restitution, undergo therapy, do community work, etc.), he does not appear before a court.

Although section 717 of the Criminal Code gives police agencies authority to retain information relating to charges that have been diverted, the RCMP's policy regarding these charges is to not enter them in the CHR. Their rationale for this is that diversion was originally created as a means of disposing of charges without branding an individual, who was not a threat to society, as a criminal.

Therefore whenever the RCMP receives information from a contributing agency that a charge has been disposed of by diversion, all information relating to the charge is purged from the system.

Discharges:

Under section 6.1 of the Criminal Records Act, any offence for which an individual has received an absolute discharge must be purged from the CHR system after one year and offences for which he has received a conditional discharge must be purged three years after the conditions of the discharge have been met.

Pardons:

Although as explained in the Pardon Section of this report, information relating to pardons is kept in a segregated part of the database, the system nevertheless provides, to authorized staff, a list of those charges that have reached their purge date. The purge criteria for pardoned records is identical to the criteria for all other records in the system. Pardoned records related to absolute and conditional discharges and young offenders are removed from the CHR system in accordance with the provisions of the Criminal Records Act and the Young Offenders Act respectively. When the scheduled purge date arrives for these records, the file is reviewed and, if there are no other charges, the file is destroyed.

11. PARDON INFORMATION:

Information relating to charges for which an individual has received a pardon is handled separately from all other CHR information by the Pardons, Civil & Human Rights Unit of the Criminal History Section of the RCMP.

11.1 Authority

The authority for this segregation of records is contained in section 6(2) of the Criminal Records Act which states:

"Any record of a conviction in respect of which a pardon has been granted that is in the custody of the Commissioner (of the RCMP) or of any department or agency of the Government of Canada shall be kept separate and apart from other criminal records, and no such record shall be disclosed to any person, nor shall the existence of the record or the fact of the conviction be disclosed to any person, without the prior approval of the Minister."

11.2 Process following pardon application

In keeping with the above, the RCMP has instituted a procedure whereby, as soon as it becomes aware that an individual has made a pardon application to the National Parole Board (NPB), a notation is placed on the individual's CHR, both hard copy and EDP, to indicate that an application for pardon has been made. This notation also states that information from the CHR must not be used or disclosed before contacting the Pardons, Civil and Human Rights Unit of the RCMP.

Whenever a request is received by the Pardons Unit for possible use or disclosure of such information, the Unit tries to ascertain from NPB whether the request is likely to be granted and how far along in the process the request is. Depending on the results of this verification, the Pardons Unit might or might not authorize the use or disclosure.

11.3 Process following granting of pardon

As soon as NPB notifies the Pardons Unit that a pardon has been granted, all hard copy information (paper and microfiche) for which this pardon has been granted is physically removed from the normal CHR files and is placed on shelving within thePardons Unit's offices. There are currently approximately 90,000 pardon files. Although physically located within the RCMP Identification Building, the offices of the Pardons Unit are separated from the other units by secure walls and doors and a separate alarm system. The offices are locked whenever they are unattended.

Once a pardon has been granted, the information contained in the CHR database, and which is accessible by CPIC, is moved to another area of the computer system with restricted access. All information relating to the charges for which a pardon has been granted is not only rendered inaccessible to most users, but the system does not even contain information to the effect that a pardon has been granted. If the only entries on an individual are those for which he has been granted a pardon, his name and all other information disappears completely from the regular CHR system.

Although in the past, the information was completely purged from the EDP system, this presented additional work for the Pardons Unit whenever a pardon was revoked or ceased to have effect. In such cases, the information had to be rekeyed into the EDP system, leading to additional work and to the increased possibility of keying errors. Under the current system, if an individual's pardon is revoked or ceases to have effect before its purge date has arrived, the information is moved back from the restricted section of the database to the regular section. Figures for the past year indicate that 695 pardons are revoked per year and an additional 5,000 pardon files are put back into the system because the pardons ceased to have effect.

It is important to note that a pardon is only granted for certain specific convictions. If an individual's CHR contains information about other criminal activity for which a pardon has not been granted, this information will remain in the open files.

11.4 Access to pardon information

Except for the individual concerned, access to the information for which a pardon has been granted is restricted to the Pardons Unit and to those employees of the Criminal History Section who perform name searches. In the case of the Pardons Unit, staff have complete access to the individual's hard copy and EDP records. The employees of the Criminal History Section who perform name searches have access to limited data elements in the segregated portion of the EDP system that contains information on pardons. These elements are limited to those needed to establish if an individual has a previous CHR for which a pardon has been granted. Whenever such an individual is identified, the new information is forwarded to the Pardons Unit for their action.

11.5 Revocation/Cessation of pardon

As mentioned above, there are instances where a pardon can be revoked or can cease to have effect. Authority for the revocation of a pardon is contained in section 7 of the Criminal Records Act. This section provides that the NPB can, under certain circumstances, revoke an individual's pardon. The process requires that the individual be notified prior to the revocation and that the opportunity to make representations be given to the individual. Once the NPB has decided to revoke a pardon, it notifies the individual and the RCMP of this fact. The RCMP then returns the individual's CHR to the regular systems and it is available to authorized users. According to statistics provided by the RCMP there were 695 revocations in 1995 and this number is consistent with previous years.

Subsection 7.2 of the Criminal Records Act also provides that:

" A pardon ceases to have effect if the person to whom it is granted or issued is subsequently convicted of an offence prosecuted by indictment under an Act of Parliament or a regulation made under an Act of Parliament."

In keeping with this subsection, the RCMP has put in place a procedure whereby, whenever it is informed that an individual who has had a pardon has been convicted of an indictable or hybrid offence, the charges for which the individual has been granted a pardon are returned to the regular CHR systems. The NPB is then notified that the individual's pardon has ceased to have effect. This process does not provide for the possibility of the individual making representations, nor does it provide for the notification of the individual that his pardon has ceased to have effect.

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Addendum "A"

STATISTICS RELATED TO CHR STUDY

General

Total Number of CHR Files 2,500,000

Number of Pardon Files 90,000

Input

Input Activities (create new files & updates) 120,000/yr.

New Pardon Files Created 24,000/yr.

Pardon Files Recreated (Pardon Revoked) 700/yr.

Pardon Files Recreated (Cessation of Pardon) 5,000/yr.

Access

CPIC Requests for CRII 4,306,781/yr.

CPIC Requests for CRS/CNI 17,518,246/yr.

Total Requests through CPIC 21,825,027/yr.

Formal Privacy Act Requests 3,700/yr.

Pardon Requests 3,300/yr.

Retention and Disposal

Partial Purge of File

- Young Offenders 10,000/yr

- Regular 12,000/yr.

TOTAL 22,000/yr.

Total Purge of File

- Young Offenders 12,000/yr.

- Violent & Inactive for 15 Years 60,000/yr.

- Non-Violent & Inactive for 5 years 18,000/yr.

- Discharges 12,000/yr.

- Diversion 6,000/yr.

- Death of Individual 3,600/yr.

- Individual 10 Years Old 5,400/yr.

TOTAL 117,000/yr.

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Addendum "B"

CRIMINAL HISTORY RECORDS STUDY

LIST OF PERSONS INTERVIEWED

RCMP

Inspector Gary Lehman OIC Criminal History Section

Sergeant Jim Turner OIC Records Maintenance Unit #2

Sergeant Guy Laviolette OIC Pardons, Civil & Human Rights Unit

Staff Sergeant Bob Young OIC Records Analysis Unit

Karen Richardson I/C International Exchange Services Unit

Sergeant Neil Burrows OIC File Control Unit

Sylvie Montminy Supervisor, Records Maintenance Unit #2

Corporal Gerry Montminy Analyst, Records Analyst Unit

Pauline Roy Clerk, Pardons, Civil & Human Rights Unit

Roger Pouliot Supervisor, File Control Unit

Liette Amyotte Clerk, Pardons, Civil & Human Rights Unit

Ottawa-Carleton Regional Police

Danielle Roy Supervisor, Criminal Records

OPP Kanata Division

Sergeant Gerry Gibson OIC Records Unit

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Addendum "C"

CATEGORY II CPIC AGENCIES

Following is a list of all agencies that have received Category II accreditation from the CPIC Advisory Committee and that have complete access to the Criminal History Records database through CPIC. This list was supplied by the OIC CPIC User Services Section of the RCMP.

Federal Agencies

Canadian National Police - Department of Investigations

Canadian Pacific Police - Enforcement Branch

Ports Canada Police

Parks Canada - Natural Resources Branch, Law Enforcement Section

Citizenship and Immigration Canada - Enforcement Branch

Environment Canada - Environment Protection Service, Programs Directorate, Office of Enforcement

Fisheries and Oceans - Conservation and Protection Operations Branch

Revenue Canada - Intelligence Services Division, Enforcement Directorate, Customs Border Services Branch

Via Rail Canada Inc. - Security Department

Correctional Service of Canada

Provincial Agencies

Alberta

Securities Commission - Enforcement Branch

Alberta Correctional Services

British Columbia

Insurance Corporation - Special Investigations Unit

Ministry of Environment, Lands and Parks - Enforcement and Environmental Emergencies Branch

Ministry of Finance and Corporate Relations - Financial Institutions Commission, Investigation Department

Securities Commission - Compliance and Enforcement Division

British Columbia Corrections

British Columbia Ministry of Attorney General - Court Services Branch

Manitoba

Public Insurance Corporation - Special Investigations Unit

Nova Scotia

Department of Natural Resources - Enforcement and Hunter Education Section

New Brunswick

New Brunswick Correctional Services

Newfoundland

Office of the High Sheriff of Newfoundland, Court Security Division

Ontario

Office of the Fire Marshall - Fire Investigative Services

Ministry of Consumer and Commercial Relations - Investigations and Enforcement Section

Ministry of Financial Institutions - Investigations Branch

Ministry of Natural Resources - Provincial Operations Branch, Compliance Operations Section

Ministry of Solicitor General and Correctional Services - Private Investigators and Security Guard Registration and Investigations Branch, Investigative Section

Securities Commission - Enforcement Branch

Niagara Parks Commission Police

Ontario Ministry of Correctional Services

Quebec

Quebec Correctional Services

Saskatchewan

Saskatchewan Environment and Resource Management - Enforcement and Compliance Branch

Securities Commission - Enforcement Branch

Saskatchewan Justice Corrections Division

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Addendum "D"

CATEGORY III CPIC AGENCIES

Access to CHR

Following is a list of the agencies that have received Category III accreditation from the CPIC Advisory Committee and that have complete access to the Criminal History Records database through CPIC. This list was supplied by the OIC CPIC User Services Section of the RCMP.

Canadian Security Intelligence Services

Access to Dummy Database

Following is a list of all agencies that have received Category III accreditation from the CPIC Advisory Committee and that have access only to a CHR dummy database for training purposes. This list was supplied by the OIC CPIC User Services Section of the RCMP.

Atlantic Police Academy

Justice Institute of British Columbia

Quebec Police Institute, Nicolet, Quebec

RCMP Informatics Field Support Branch - Model Field Office

No Access to CHR

Following is a list of all agencies that have received Category III accreditation from the CPIC Advisory Committee and that have no access to the Criminal History Records database through CPIC. This list was supplied by the OIC CPIC User Services Section of the RCMP.

Chief Provincial Firearms Officers

Insurance Crime Prevention Bureau - Canadian Auto Theft Bureau

La Soci‚t‚ d'Assurance Automobile du Qu‚bec

Public Works and Government Services Canada - Seized Property and Management Directorate