ARCHIVED - Minister Toews: New Technology to Increase Speed and Reliability of Vulnerable Sector Police Checks

CALGARY, May 25, 2011 — Children's coaches, volunteers, child care workers and others who give their time to work with vulnerable individuals will soon have access to faster, more accurate and more efficient police checks, announced the Honourable Vic Toews, Canada's Minister of Public Safety. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police-developed Real-Time Identification (RTID) system, which is already in use in over 29 police jurisdictions across Canada, will significantly reduce the time required to screen Canadians for work in the vulnerable sector, while delivering a more reliable assessment of whether the individual should be allowed to work with vulnerable individuals such as children.

“In order to help safeguard the safety and security of families and communities, our government encourages organizations that work with children and the elderly to ensure potential employees undergo a vulnerable sector check,” said Minister Toews. “Today I am pleased to highlight the RCMP's efforts to develop and implement this technology solution which, with the cooperation of police forces in Canada, will help reduce these important verification wait times from months to, at the most, a few weeks.”

With the new technology, applicants can submit their fingerprint for verification and in a matter of minutes, receive a response, as opposed to the weeks or months of waiting that were required under the previous system. Fingerprints related to vulnerable sector checks are destroyed after the research process is completed.

“While the most recent changes made the process for vulnerable sector verifications longer, this change also ensures that offenders can no longer hide their criminal past simply by changing their name,” emphasized Minister Toews. “Now this new technology will further strengthen the reliability of these checks by making the verifications faster and more efficient.”

“In October 2010, the RCMP made improvements to its Real Time Identification System (RTID) to allow police services across the country to electronically submit fingerprints for verification via Livescan devices, and to receive responses electronically,” said Mr. Peter Henschel, RCMP Assistant Commissioner, Forensic Science and Identification Services. “Where the technology is fully implemented fingerprint verification can be completed in as little as five minutes if there is no criminal record or pardoned sexual offence on file.”

“The technology was an excellent investment both for the Calgary Police Service and the community we serve. The use of Livescan will allow the Calgary Police Service to process vulnerable sector checks more effectively,” said Calgary Police Chief, Rick Hanson.

The Government of Canada recommends that vulnerable sector verifications be completed for persons applying for positions such as social work, day-care and coaching. Additional information on Vulnerable Sector Verifications is available on the RCMP Web site: http://www.rcmp-grc.gc.ca/cr-cj/vulner/index-eng.htm.

Information:

Media Relations
Public Safety Canada
613-991-0657

Date modified:

2015-11-26