Questions continue over police checks
LAW: Reliability of database at issue
Andrew Tablotney is sympathetic to the plight of a North Vancouver dad suing RCMP to clear his daughter’s name after a criminal record check that has jeopardized her volunteer work with kids.
The Richmond man had a similar problem several years ago when a criminal record check was done as a condition for him coaching kids.
Much to his surprise, the record check produced a hit on the police computer system indicating that he was known to police. Armed with the knowledge that he had no prior criminal charges or convictions, he contacted his local RCMP detachment for an explanation. Turns out that all he had done was to have reported a crime in progress, which resulted in his name being included in the police database and therefore caught by the criminal record check.
Fortunately, he was able to get the matter sorted out quickly, but feels sympathy for others who have run into bureaucratic resistance and agrees something needs to be done.
“If I hadn’t pushed the issue, I would have had to write away to Ottawa to get written confirmation that I wasn’t known for some nefarious result,” he said.
Tablotney was commenting on the case of ex-North Van city mayoral candidate Kerry Morris, who has filed suit against the RCMP over a check done on his teenage daughter, who volunteers at a religious summer camp for kids. The check produced two hits for minor incidents — neither of which resulted in criminal charges — and have put his daughter’s volunteer work at risk. He wants the B.C. Supreme Court to expunge those records because the police won’t do it for him.
Morris also got a sympathetic ear from former solicitor-general and West Vancouver police chief Kash Heed, who questioned the reliance on the police database known as PRIME B.C., which contains all police files in B.C., in criminal record checks. He said information can go into PRIME and doesn’t have to be verified or corroborated.
“This is an ongoing problem with lawenforcement and government officials and they’re not addressing this problem. I just wanted to let (Morris) know that the frustration exists and has existed for quite some time.
“I can certainly see how his daughter would be labelled. Something of that nature can easily affect a young person’s life and it seems to be affecting her life.”
When Heed was a superintendent with the Vancouver police and then police chief in West Van, he heard complaints similar to those raised by Morris.
He said the record checks should require that any information that is called up by PRIME should be verified with other databases such as the Canadian Police Information Centre (CPIC) database, which records criminal charges and convictions.
“I think you cannot take the information at face value from (PRIME),” Heed said.