More than eight out of every ten BC adults in police database
by BCCLA
The B.C. Civil Liberties Association has discovered
that as many as 85% of British Columbia’s adult population have “master
name records” in the PRIME-BC police database.
This database is used by
police to prepare criminal record checks, including the controversial
“negative police contact” section of those checks that can restrict
access to jobs or volunteer opportunities.
The BCCLA has written the
Solicitor General to ask her to investigate.
“With more than eight out of every ten B.C. adults in
this database, we’re wondering if people know what the police are
writing about them,” said Robert Holmes, Q.C., President of the BCCLA.
“These notes by police officers can prevent people from getting jobs,
schooling and training, and it is difficult if not impossible to remove
or alter incorrect information.”
The most recent annual report for PRIMECorp, the
crown corporation that administers the database, indicates that the
database has 4,452,165 master name records, and B.C.’s entire population
as of October 1, 2010 older than 15 years of age, was estimated by BC
Stats to be 3,844,531.
Even if as many as a quarter of master name
records are duplicates due to aliases, misspellings or out-of-province
residence, 86% of the adult population of B.C. would still be recorded
in the database.
While PRIME-BC was introduced in the Legislature as a
way to better combat serial killers, sexual offenders, and career
criminals, it would seem that minor traffic violations are enough to
land B.C. residents in the police database, indefinitely. There is
little in the way of protocol guiding how entries are made, how long
information is kept, and the BCCLA frequently receives complaints about
incorrect information being impossible to alter.
“What is disturbing is that some information is being
recorded as ‘negative contact’,” said Holmes. “Employers assume that
if you have ‘negative contact’, you have done something wrong, but it’s
just as likely that you insisted on your basic rights or that the
information is incorrect. This is not some kind of philosophical
objection, this misinformation is wrongfully keeping people from
economic opportunities.”
Click here to learn about requesting your information from PRIME-BC and to learn more about this database >>
Click here to read the BCCLA’s letter to Solicitor General of British Columbia >>
