The Royal Canadian Mounted Police's (RCMP) decision to keep track of fingerprints and other pertinent identifiers has sparked a heated debate, with some arguing that such information should be erased when an individual is found innocent and others arguing that the records should be kept indefinitely by the Canadian Criminal Real Time Identification Services. (CCRTIS). In order to help the RCMP carry out its policing and intelligence duties and thereby ensure the safety of the entire population, dependence on the retention of the various forms of identifiers is an ends to a means. This essay's focus is on the factors that force the RCMP to keep IDs on hand for an arbitrary period of time.To begin with, the major reason why identifiers are collected is that they aid in the unit combating serious and organized crime (RCMP, 2014). To this end, the Canadian Police Information Centre is required by law to maintain records that will aid the RCMP in combating all sorts of crime, and as such acts as a link among all policing authorities in Canada towards ensuring that police have the necessary identifiers to assist them in not only identifying criminals but also towards solving crimes (Canadian Police Information Centre, 2017). As such, identifiers collected include photographs, fingerprints, and DNA that is prescribed under the Canadian law as per Contraventions Act and the DNA Identification Act respectively (Kalina, 2012) and are focused on those individuals who are identified as those under custody and charged with criminal behavior.
In adding to the above, the data collected and stored by the RCMP can only be removed where individuals whose identifiers had been collected have their charges swayed, withdrawn, or dismissed or where the individual applies for a record suspension or is discharged from the corrective institution. However, it is the claim of this paper that by destroying this information, a certain security aspect is lost within the society. This is because identifiers have the core purpose of ensuring the safety of all civilians in the Canada and where they are destroyed, may lead to a biased data system that only recognizes those that society has recommended towards rehabilitation in the country's institutions. Further, such information, as per the laws of Canada can be obtained by private investigators who are usually hired by organizations that seek to hire from the populace.
While the above seeks to ensure that all people who have had their identifiers picked are maintained in the system towards ensuring enhanced security, it is also a way in which those who were wrongly accused or have had their cases discharged are maintained in the system towards ensuring that any errors that may have occurred either during investigations or court cases are maintained and as such, allow for the police to have an avenue to conduct follow-up investigations.
Given the above and considering that arguments against maintaining identifiers revolve around past offenders having difficulty in obtaining jobs after serving their prison sentences, it is important that identifiers are maintained for unidentified periods of time. This is because, even where employers employ previous cons, they have a right to know exactly who they are hiring. Further, these records will also play a huge role in ensuring the safety of people in neighborhoods, especially children, where they live next to killers and pedophiles. This does not necessarily indicate that the criminals will have a hard time aligning themselves to society since prevention is better than cure.
References
Canadian Police Information Centre. (2017). About Us. Retrieved from Canadian Police Information Centre: http://www.cpic-cipc.ca/about-ausujet/index-eng.htm
Kalina, H. J. (2012, December 5). Police Policy on Destruction of Records. Retrieved from Kalina & Tejpal Lawyers: https://lawyer4u.ca/police-policy-on-destruction-of-records/
RCMP. (2014, March 14). Strategic Priorities. Retrieved from Royal Canadian Mounted Police: http://www.rcmp-grc.gc.ca/prior/index-eng.htm
