National News
Criminal database backlog won't end until 2018
March 19, 2015 posted by Steve Brownstein
The RCMP have acknowledged there's a large backlog of entries for its national criminal-record database, known as CPIC, and say the problem won’t be cleared until 2018.
But the Mounties say they have found some workarounds in the meantime to help mitigate the problem in a database that is relied on daily by police, prosecutors and judges.
By this spring, all police services will be connected to an up-to-date central database of fingerprint images, says Sgt. Greg Cox. The system will allow police forces to send and receive images electronically.
The Mounties are also working to eliminate an archaic system, in which police forces send paper copies of criminal records to Ottawa, in favour of a purely electronic transfer by March 2017.
And the RCMP are currently fast-tracking the data entry of criminal records for “high-risk and prolific offenders,” based on consultations with the provinces, Cox said.
But the existing backlog, estimated at several hundred thousand criminal records, will not be eliminated until paper records can be electronically scanned over the next three years
Cox said the improvements in updating the CPIC database have cost the government $180 million since the auditor general sounded the alarm in 2009 and 2011.
