XPost: can.politics, bc.politics, ab.politics   
   XPost: man.politics, sk.politics, mtl.general   
   From: Specialaws@tweek.eu   
      
   This would be laughable if it weren't so bloody tragic.   
      
   The criminal records of offenders - two years back to now - are   
   UNavailable to police.  When they investigate or detain someone who's   
   suspected of an offence, they have no idea what he may have been up to   
   within the last few years.  In one case cited below, the records were   
   FOUR years behind in being recorded on CPIC.   
      
   Unbelievable!   And we wonder why 'dangerous offenders' are being   
   released onto our streets?   
      
   Building prisons all over the bloody country and yet Harper hasn't got   
   the 'budget' to hire clerks to update CPIC's database.   
      
   Seems we were right to demand the retention of LOCAL gun-registration   
   records and files.  Harper certainly isn't up to the job.   
   __________________________________________   
      
   CBC News Posted: Mar 10, 2015   
      
   RCMP database remains out of date, police and prosecutors say   
      
   Years after auditor general flagged issue, RCMP database still stale,   
   hampering police and courts   
      
      
      
   An RCMP criminal database remains seriously backlogged six years after   
   Canada’s auditor general warned the out-of-date system was undermining   
   the courts and law enforcement.   
      
   The Canadian Police Information Centre database, known as CPIC, was   
   designed as a national tool for police and prosecutors to check the   
   criminal history of suspects and those charged with or convicted of new   
   offences.   
      
   But the Mounties have failed to keep the information current, leaving   
   justice officials and police blind to the recent criminal records of   
   thousands of offenders.   
      
   The information gap can be two years or more because the RCMP has not   
   yet entered hundreds of thousands of recent criminal records.   
      
   	 RCMP struggling with police services funding gap	   
      
   A spokesman for the Canadian Police Association says the federal   
   government is focusing on the security of Canadians, yet fails to   
   provide front-line officers with a basic tool.   
      
   “There’s great concern at the federal level about the security of   
   citizens, but we’re calling on (Public Safety) Minister (Steven) Blaney   
   to give us the necessary tools to be able to do our job,” Yves   
   Francoeur, vice-president of the police association, said in an interview.   
      
   “In certain cases, this could effectively put lives in danger,” he said,   
   saying that police need to know the criminal past of suspected   
   terrorists they are monitoring, among others.   
      
      
   Dates to 2009   
      
   Canada’s auditor general has twice sounded the alarm about the CPIC   
   database, first in 2009 when there was a serious backlog in updating   
   individuals’ criminal record information, and again in 2011 when that   
   backlog had grown far worse.  English-language updates were taking 14   
   months, while in Quebec the backlog stretched for 36 months.   
      
   Justice officials say there’s been no improvement since.   
      
   “Crown prosecutors ... each day have to make crucial decisions about the   
   freedom of an individual and the security of the public with incomplete   
   information, which is totally unacceptable,” said Thomas Jacques,   
   spokesman for the Association of Quebec Prosecutors.   
      
        'I can't sentence people properly on the basis of a four-year gap   
   of information.'- Justice Elliott Allen   
      
   The most recent data from the RCMP indicates that in 2013 there were   
   some 400,000 criminal records that had yet to be added to the CPIC   
   database.   
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   Local and provincial police forces do keep up-to-date records, but if an   
   offender moves to a new jurisdiction, they can effectively shed their   
   criminal record for up to two years.   
      
   “The increased volume of requests and demand for criminal record checks   
   from both criminal justice agencies and the public sector continues to   
   exceed the RCMP’s current capacity to respond in a sustainable, timely   
   manner,” said Mountie spokesman Sgt. Harold Pfleiderer, acknowledging   
   the problem remains unsolved.   
      
   “Until automation processes for the entire criminal records system is   
   complete, quicker turnaround and sustainable delivery of service will   
   remain a challenge.”   
      
   The RCMP launched a project in November last year to help address the   
   existing backlog, and has offered to selectively update some criminal   
   records at the specific request of police and prosecutors, he added.   
      
   Another RCMP spokesman, Sgt. Greg Cox, later said the backlog is   
   expected to be cleared by March 2017.   
      
      
   Slow to update   
      
   CBC News has obtained several examples of Ontario justice-system reports   
   that show no previous convictions for some offenders in the last two   
   years in the CPIC system, yet convictions are recorded for the same   
   period in the Ontario Provincial Police database.   
      
   Even some judges have railed against the RCMP’s failure to keep the CPIC   
   information current.   
      
   “The public should know that the RCMP is, whatever, four years behind in   
   posting these things and this is not a trivial matter,” Justice Elliott   
   Allen told his Kitchener, Ont., courtroom in 2012.   
      
   “I mean, I can’t sentence people properly on the basis of a four-year   
   gap in information,” he said, calling it a “national scandal.”   
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   Allen had been told by prosecutors that CPIC showed no convictions since   
   2008 for a man he was about to sentence, yet a local database showed 12   
   convictions in that gap period.   
      
   Jacques, of the Quebec prosecutors association, said the CPIC troubles   
   suggest Ottawa isn’t serious about being tough on crime.   
      
   “The federal government seems to place great importance on the security   
   of the public and … on the fight against crime, yet this basic tool is   
   totally deficient and inadequate,” he said.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)