VANCOUVER—B.C.’s privacy commissioner has announced that her office will examine the issue of employers using a police database to conduct criminal record checks on job applicants.
Information and Privacy Commissioner Elizabeth Denham confirmed that her office has for several months been investigating criminal record checks, and will now look into concerns raised by the BC Civil Liberties Association about the PRIMEBC police database.
The BCCLA says the database is being used for pre-employment checks that go beyond checking for criminal convictions, resulting in lost job or volunteer opportunities.
The association has found that as many as 86 percent of B.C. adults have their names recorded in the PRIME database, which holds a significant amount of sensitive information.
“This is a very complex issue involving multiple jurisdictions, multiple data linkages, competing interests and the overlap of at least five different laws. And at the end of the day, we need to be certain that the process is fair and justifiable, both ethically and legally,” Denham said in a statement.
The database is used by all BC police forces to collect, use, and disclose law enforcement information, such as who has called the police, been a victim or a suspect of a crime, or charged with an offense.
BCCLA president Robert Holmes said the problem is that some information is being recorded as “negative contact” which could result in lost job opportunities.
“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.”
RCMP Insp. Bruce Imrie of the Informatics Branch told the Vancouver Sun that he believes the BCCLA’s figures are too high because many residents’ names in the PRIME database are duplications, misspellings, or aliases. He said the association’s estimate of 25 percent misspellings and duplications may be too low.
The most recent annual report from PRIMECorp, the crown corporation that manages the database, showed that it has 4,452,165 master name records, more than the province’s population as of Oct. 1, 2010, which was 3,844,531.
The BCCLA says that even if a quarter of the names are duplicates as a result of misspellings, aliases, or out-of-province residence, 86 percent of the adults in B.C. would still be recorded in the database.
“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 Holmes. “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.”
PRIME, an acronym for Police Records Information Management Environment, was first introduced to the province to combat sex offenders, serial killers, and career criminals.
“In the past, the PRIME database has been considered a highly confidential tool for law enforcement in their daily activities,” Denham said. “If PRIME is going to be used increasingly for background checks, citizens will likely demand greater access to it to ensure any information contained therein is accurate.”
The commissioner said her office’s examination will include consultations with the Solicitor General, civil society groups, the law enforcement community and other information and privacy commissioners.
“This issue is not unique to British Columbia. It’s important to involve a broad set of stakeholders in our analysis,” she said.
