RCMP Report CPIC Backlog of 570,639 Fingerprint Files: And This Serious Backlog Is Growing Not Shrinking

Abstract

In 2012, an article in Blue Line News Week reported that there were 430,000 criminal records waiting to be filed into the Canadian Police Information Centre (CPIC) database, with more piling in every day. The backlog accounts for about 10% of the RCMP’s complete criminal record file of 4.3 million records. We wanted to know if there had been any shrinkage in the CPIC backlog for the subsequent years, so we filed an Access to Information Act (ATIP) request with the RCMP in July 2016. In January 2017, we received the RCMP’s response: “As of August 15, 2016, there was a backlog of 570,639 Fingerprint Services Number (FPS) files to be updated to the National Repository of Criminal Records.”

Keywords: Canada, RCMP, Criminal Records, Fingerprints, Government Inefficiency