Released under the Access to information Acti

Divulg?(s) en vertu cle ta Lei sur l?acc?s a l?information.

Of?ce of the Privacy Climmissioner
Commissariat (i la protection de la vie priv?e

 

MEMORANDUM
Date October 28, 2014 I File 
To I File c.c. I
From Tom J. Fitzpatrick
subject Review of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police Problems with statistics
and identifying warrantless access ?les
Background 

Prior to commencing our review we were aware of an RCMP document related to the numbers of
warrantless access requests for basic subscriber information in 2010. This information had been
provided further to an Access to information Act (ATIA) request. We expected that these statistics
would be accurate, complete and unto-date and that they would allow us to review RCMP ?les related
to such warrantless access requests. Based on the evidence below we found, on the contrary, that the
statistics provided for 2010 (and later for 2011-2013) were inaccurate, incomplete, not current and they
were not useful in identifying PROS ?les for review.

One of the problems we noted right away was that the data provided for 2010 was not complete as it
was not consistently used by RCMP units. This explanation was found in a footnote to theATlP response
at TAB-A. We also noted that the Form 6306 used to report instances of warrantless access requests

does not have an entry for the PROS number, which would have ailowed us to link a report to a relevant
operational ?le, for the purposes of an audit. Problems with the reliability of data were also provided by
way of interviews with senior of?cials.

 

In a written response to questions addressed to inspector Jeff Beaulac of the Technical, Policy, Research
and Development Branch, on December 12, 2013 he indicated that

   
 

speaking about the

 

  

numbers of reports?received in 2012 and 2013 he also indicated the

 
 

 

 



000277

 

 

7 Releasedrunder therAccess to information  I 
Divulg?(s) en vertu de la Loi sur l?acc?s a l?information.



v? 

From these we also found that for warrantiess access are Inaccurate
because of lack of reporting, multiple reporting or overlapping reporting.

 

In a February 10, 2014 email from Inspector Jeff Beaulac he indicated that

   
 

'At a February 20, 2014 meeting with Inspector Jeff Beaulac he stated tha 

 

Our review of the statistics for 2011 to 2013 showed what appeared to be inconsistencies fromregion to
region and with the way statistics were reported; Inspector Bea ulac advised us at a later?date that

   
  

In conclusion, based on our review of statistics and interviews with senior of?cials at the RCMP we were
unable to rely upon the numbers provided for warrantiess access requests, nor was there'any linkage
between reports/of?such requests and the actual operational ?les containing such requests. 



000278