QUESTION
A police officer is able to write a police report about a person, then have it entered on to a computer, which is then able to be shown and read by all police officers via what is called a PRIME report.
However, I believe that a PRIME report is not fully checked, investigated and verified to be accurate. If a report is later found and known to be false:
1) How is the subject of that false report able to remove it from the PRIME system?
2) What disciplinary action would be taken against a police officer for entering such a false PRIME report?
John Harvey North Vancouver
Dear Mr. Harvey:
Thank you for your questions.
In fact, they touch upon a truth about the police: We keep detailed and comprehensive records.
The reasons for this are manifold. Accurate records are central and vital instruments used to support the law enforcement mission of police agencies. They provide streetlevel enforcement officers the tools to gather information, build reports to Crown counsel and share information with other police agencies.
This last point has become increasingly integral to effective policing in jurisdictions such as the Lower Mainland, where there are at least seven RCMP detachments and seven municipal police forces, each with separate databases, different filing cabinets, and likely even different coloured file folders. We all know that criminals don't have much regard for police jurisdictions, and so it is imperative that all agencies have an effective way of communicating with each other.
That's where the system you mention, PRIME, which stands for Police Records Information Management Environment, comes in.
PRIME is a shared police reporting system that spans British Columbia and provides access to police records for both RCMP and municipal police. The goal of the system is to ensure consolidated and timely information sharing at all levels.
This is a good thing. I lived through the changes that brought about the PRIME system and can say from first-hand, street-cop experience that being able to see at a glance a suspect's activity in other jurisdictions makes a world of difference. When dealing with criminals on the street, we often must try to piece together disparate pieces of an incomplete puzzle. Documented details of an encounter between that same criminal and officers in another jurisdiction frequently paint the bigger picture in much brighter colours. Without question, this helps us to solve crimes and recommend charges.
Additionally, these systems also protect peoples' rights, counterintuitive as that may seem. By making it possible to respond with greater comprehensiveness to things such as requests for disclosure to defence lawyers and Crown counsel, and for requests for access to information by members of the press and public under the Access to Information Act and the Privacy Act, comprehensive record-keeping protects the rights of Canadians.
Your belief that PRIME reports are not fully checked for accuracy is incorrect. In fact, police records management is a huge part of policing operations. I can tell you, also from experience, that the painstaking checks and double checks undertaken by our records clerks regularly catch the smallest details - a postal code may have been entered with an incorrect letter, a business phone number may have been entered as a residential number, and so on.
Yes, despite the fail-safe measures in place, sometimes mistakes are made. In cases where a person feels that information has been incorrectly entered, we certainly want to know about it. It does us no good to keep incorrect information. If it is shown to be wrong, we will simply correct it.
As for any disciplinary action against an officer in the event an error is made, it depends on a review of the circumstances surrounding the error. As always, there is a high expectation on the police to be competent, professional and honest. Failure to live up to those standards places an officer in jeopardy of a variety of consequences. Any decision about that would come only after a comprehensive and thorough investigation.
And if anyone wanted to know the details of that investigation, rest assured it will be well documented, checked for accuracy, kept in police records, and be available for disclosure under the provisions of Canada's privacy and information legislation.
That, to be sure, is a good thing too.
Peter DeVries District West Response Sergeant
North Vancouver RCMP
Follow Peter on Twitter at www.twitter.com/rcmpdevries
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