Criminal Record Systems
Criminal records are created under the terms of the Criminal Records Act, and in the case of youth records, subject to the Young Offenders Act.
When a local police force or RCMP agency arrests an individual on suspicion of a criminal offence, they create a local file on a local or regional police system, such as the Police Records Information Management Environment (PRIME) and the Police Information Retrieval System (PIRS). The fingerprints of the accused are typically taken at this time and are submitted to Criminal Records Information Management Services (CRIMS) for classification and entry into the system.
If the police/crown decides that they have obtained enough evidence to obtain a conviction, they forward the charges to the courts for prosecution. Once the court proceedings are over, the results of these proceedings (conviction, discharge, acquittal etc...) are entered onto the fingerprint form and the record is updated.
Unless pardoned, criminal records then persist on CRIMS until you are 80 years old (* must also have been crime free for 10 years).
In Canada, no one can access another person's criminal record without the consent of the person to whom the record relates. The exception to this rule is court records, which by law are a matter of public record. Also, Law enforcement, government agencies, including foreign governments such as the United States, Canadian courts, and other authorized agencies do not require your consent to access your criminal record.
Canadian Police Information Centre (CPIC)
The Canadian Police Information Centre (CPIC) was created in 1966 to provide tools to assist the police community in combating crime. Since 1967, CPIC is also a computerized information system available to provide all Canadian law enforcement agencies with information on crimes and criminals.
CPIC transmits requests by authorized agencies to several data banks primarily for law enforcement purposes. One of those data banks is the Criminal Records Information Management Services (CRIMS). CRIMS updates and maintains more than 600,000 criminal records annually and populates criminal record information to the Canadian Police Information Centre (CPIC) Identification Data Bank.
A criminal record file consists of an individual's criminal charges and their dispositions, including convictions and discharges that are supported by fingerprint information.
A clear result from a CPIC check does not necessarily mean you have a clear criminal record. There are numerous criminal record systems nation-wide and the Provincial Courts. Consequently, your criminal record can be stored, and accessed, in any number of ways.
Express Pardons conducts a comprehensive, multi-level criminal record search to ensure all records held on you are uncovered, pursuant to your pardon, U.S. entry waiver, file purge, or criminal record search application.
Police Information Retrieval System (PIRS)
PIRS is the RCMP's automated information management system used to store, update and retrieve information on case records/occurrences being, or having been, investigated. This electronic indexing system is used by the RCMP, some Municipal Police agencies, by Firearms Officers, and by other federal partners.
PIRS captures data on individuals who have been involved in investigations under the Criminal Code, federal and provincial statutes, municipal by-laws and territorial ordinances. According to the RCMP, in addition to details of an event in a brief synopsis (maximum of 240 characters), PIRS contains limited information relating to investigations and criminal histories.
Unlike CPIC, which essentially contains factual information (e.g., charges and convictions), PIRS may also contain information provided by witnesses, victims and other associated subjects that can be highly subjective, as well as the names of the witnesses, victims, and acquaintances of the accused individual.
PIRS also differs from CPIC in that it contains information on occurrences and incidents that never resulted in charges. That means you can have a PIRS record and not even know it.
Entries in the Police Information Retrieval System (PIRS) are assigned codes which bear significance on whether the details on an individual are reflected in the RCMP's standard four level criminal record check (form 3923e, Consent for Disclosure of Criminal Record Information).
The two major classifications are "Subject Chargeable" (SCH) and "Subject of Complaint" (SOC). Subject Chargeable implies a higher degree of assumed guilt of the individual in question. Subject of Complaint simply denotes that the individual has been brought to the RCMP/Police's attention in an investigation and their name and personal details had to be entered into PIRS for the purpose of maintaining a record of the incident.
SCH entries are often revealed in the fourth category of the RCMP's four-section criminal record check, whereas SOC entries are typically not, as they generally denote information which is highly subjective.
Purging records from PIRS is notoriously difficult; however, Express Pardons has enjoyed a degree of success in having classifications of entries changed so that the information does not turn up in a criminal record check. See purge services.
Provincial and Municipal Police Information Retrieval Systems
Similar to the RCMP's PIRS database, Ontario has a police information retrieval system known as OMPACC, while Calgary has PIMS, Edmonton has PROBE, Regina has IRIS, etc. Formal and informal information sharing arrangements are in place between police services or agencies for the exchange of information in these databases.
Express Pardons can obtain information contained on you in provincial and municipal criminal record databases through freedom of information requests, and can petition to have records removed on your behalf through our purge services.
