Privacy comes first
Imagine trying to cross the border into the United States, only to be denied because American officials have access to seemingly private information about a previous suicide attempt or even a mistaken overdose of pills.
According to Ontario’s privacy commissioner, it has happened to at least four Torontonians and, depending on life’s challenges, there’s nothing to stop it from happening to others. That’s a terrifying thought.
Privacy watchdog Ann Cavoukian released a scathing report this week demanding that Toronto police stop routinely filing information about suicide attempts on an RCMP-run computer system that is shared with U.S. border officials. Toronto police contest this, saying they review it twice before uploading and argue that mental health information is filed to assist officers in future calls. Still, Cavoukian is rightly asking the department to use more discretion.
While Toronto police say mental health information is filed to assist officers in future calls, Cavoukian is quite rightly asking the department to follow privacy laws that prevent “indiscriminate disclosure.”
Police may be well-intentioned in their efforts to file those personal details, since they’ve been criticized for a heavy-handed response to people with serious mental health problems. But in this case their efforts have the unintended consequence of harming people who are simply trying to get on with their lives.
If the police department won’t willingly stop this routine practice, then the Toronto Police Services Board should direct a change in policy. Toronto residents — or any Ontarian for that matter — have a right to privacy, especially when they pose no threat to others.
As the Star’s Robert Benzie reports, Cavoukian found that other police departments don’t feel the same need to over-share private information.
Her investigation looked at the practices of police in Hamilton, Ottawa and Waterloo, along with Toronto and the Ontario Provincial Police. Only Toronto, she said, has a policy requiring automatic disclosure of suicide information.
When Toronto police spokesperson Mark Pugash contested that point this week, he and Cavoukian ended up in a war of words over the department’s definition of “discretion.” Perhaps the point is moot. The reality is that some people who have attempted suicide while struggling with depression or chronic pain are being penalized for their past behaviour.
There’s no reason to add that information to the Canadian Police Information Centre (CPIC) database — particularly when it is automatically passed on to U.S. border officials. It doesn’t make sense to add such private information, knowing that the RCMP will turn it over to American officials.
Of course, there are exceptions that must be observed. Cavoukian agrees that privacy laws should not cover extreme cases, such as suicide attempts that involve threats of violence to others, a person with a history of violence, or someone who intentionally provokes police to shoot them, otherwise known as “suicide by cop.” Those are justifiable reasons to embrace public safety over privacy.
When those serious conditions do not exist, Toronto police should make the same choices as those in Hamilton or Ottawa and let suicide attempts remain private.