New provincial guidelines for police record checks strike a good balance between protecting the vulnerable and ensuring that people aren’t tarred unfairly. Enshrining the rules in law would make them stronger.
The government introduced the rules in response to a report by Information and Privacy Commissioner Elizabeth Denham in April 2014 that said police were often releasing too much information when they did record checks.
In the wake of Denham’s report, the Victoria Police Department stopped doing record checks until the province could clear up the issue.
Police record checks were once something that most people never encountered, but these days many employers and volunteer organizations require them. Because of inconsistent policies, police departments were handing over information that shocked the employers who received it and horrified the people who were the subject of the checks.
Police in B.C. were releasing more information than anywhere else in Canada.
Police have a lot more information on us than we once thought. And some of that information can be damaging, even if we have never been convicted of a crime.
Record checks were telling prospective employers about suicide attempts, mental illnesses, minor brushes with the law and even cases where someone was suspected of an offence but never charged. The results could be devastating.
“As a result, citizens are being wrongly denied employment opportunities and are being stigmatized and discriminated against on the basis of unproved and irrelevant non-conviction records as well as irrelevant conviction records,” Denham’s report said.
Record checks should not drag in incidents where there has been no judicial decision. It is only fair that irrelevant information should not turn ordinary job-seekers or volunteers into victims.
However, there are other potential victims who do need to be protected.
The new rules allow for different treatment of those people who are going to work with children or vulnerable adults. Although it contradicts our belief in the presumption of innocence, we must go the extra mile to protect those who could too easily be victimized.
The costs of accidentally allowing, for instance, a pedophile to join an organization that works with children is too high.
The guidelines should bring much-needed consistency to the way B.C. police forces approach criminal-record checks. However, Denham is concerned that variations will continue unless the province turns the guidelines into law.
Her concern is echoed by the B.C. Civil Liberties Association, which says that the rules don’t give citizens a clear procedure to follow if things go wrong. Who do they complain to if too much information is released?
Denham’s office will have to keep an eye on the way police put the new guidelines into effect. And so will citizens.
Criminal record checks can help keep dangerous people out of positions of trust, but they should not penalize people who have done nothing wrong.
