CCRTIS Report - Volume 1, Issue 2 September 2009

Canadian Criminal Real Time Identification Services Newsletter

RTID Milestone Reached with Release

On Sunday July 5th, the Canadian Criminal Real Time Identification Services (CCRTIS) put into production the largest release of the Real Time Identification Project to date.

This release, named 1.0.4.5, provides additional functionality for Criminal and Refugee Workflows.

While we anticipated federal departments and police services would migrate to this release in the fall, instead, due to the complexity of this major release, CCRTIS will continue in its migration testing during that time.

As a result, the Criminal Records Working Group meeting will be postponed until after the migration testing process is complete.

The next working group meeting will now be scheduled sometime mid next year.

As well, the RTID Project Design Team, who conducted a review to determine whether Phase 2 of the Project could meet its completion date of December 2010, have recently identified scope revisions to meet the evolving realities and demands since the RTID Project began.

The scope revisions are in keeping with efforts to stay on schedule and CCRTIS is currently examining the revisions, which were received at the end of August.

"We want to ensure we have a complete understanding whether these revisions will have an impact on the expectations laid out for Phase 2," said Guylaine Dansereau, CCRTIS Director.

"Once we have time to assess this new schedule, we will be sharing the findings with our clients."

RTID Phase 2 will deliver core criminal functionalities to process criminal record information electronically.

Releases in Phase 2 will include support for electronic submissions of criminal records (charge and subsequent disposition information), as well as enhancements to the handling of refugee, employee and civil submissions, which are associated with the replacement of some existing legacy systems and upgraded workflows.

CCRTIS will assess the impact and prioritize the functionalities, which are not included in the revised scope, for releases to start following the completion of the formal RTID Project in December 2010.

"We are looking forward to providing clients with new enhancements to the RTID system," said Dansereau.

"There is more to come over the next 18 months with many releases planned."

From Months to Minutes: CRA Shares RTID Experience

With only a few months of using Real Time Identification (RTID) to submit fingerprints electronically behind them, the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) is already eyeing expansion.

On April 1st, CRA began submitting prospective employee's electronic fingerprints to the RCMP for reliability checks.

The Live Scan technology used to take the electronic prints is working so well, the Agency wants to equip key facilities across the country with the technology within the next two years.

The Agency also wants their key facilities including taxation centres to take advantage, as soon as possible, of Card Scan technology -- where inked fingerprint forms could be transmitted electronically to a central server for onward transmission to the RTID system at RCMP Headquarters in Ottawa.

"We are getting very fast responses," said Sylvain Trottier, CRA Assets Protection and Security Services Director. Where it used to take between three and eight months for a criminal record check, it is now a matter of hours or even minutes, when no record is found, he said.

"We were basically pioneers for the RTID Project," said Gilles Perron, CRA Project Coordinator and Corporate Security Advisor, noting the Agency was one of the first federal government departments to adopt the RTID system. CRA submits about 1,200 fingerprint checks to the RCMP per year. Trottier expects it will take a full year before they realize the impact RTID has on their security screening processes.

A major component of RTID Project's first phase dealt with the capability to allow electronic fingerprint transmission from CRA Headquarters Security to the RCMP RTID system. The CRA Project is now entering its second phase, which will allow CRA field offices to submit electronically, criminal records verifications, including fingerprints.

CRA's interest in RTID dates back to 2006. Perron's advice to other departments considering the RTID system: dedicate a strong team of IT specialists to implement server and network requirements.

"The most critical part of it is the network," said Perron.

Trottier added much of the Agency's success with the system is owed to the technical team from both the CRA and the RCMP. The RCMP Lead Process Coordinator, Tracey Perron has been instrumental in organizing activities with agencies and with RCMP internal resources to achieve the required connections. Tracey may be reached at tracey.perron@rcmp-grc.gc.ca.

Service Delivery Response Time Objectives

Service	2001	RTID Phase 1	RTID Phase 2
Civil 10 print searched (not linked) to a criminal record	5 months	72 hours (3 business days)
Latent crime scene searches	6 weeks	24 hours
Criminal 10 print searches	10 weeks	2 hours
Criminal record updates	9 months		24 hours
Civil 10 print linked to a criminal record	6 weeks		72 Hours (3 business days)

CCRTIS Shares Project Progress with IIC

The Canadian Criminal Real Time Identification Services (CCRTIS) continues to work with international partners to improve the use and dissemination of knowledge relating to law enforcement and biometric data.

By taking part in the International Information Consortium (IIC), CCRTIS works with other IIC members that have a responsibility for the law enforcement data and identification systems in their respective countries.

The IIC is made up of executives and technical experts from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the RCMP, the National Policing Improvement Agency of the United Kingdom (NPIA), the CrimTrac Agency of Australia, and the New Zealand Police.

CCRTIS Director Guylaine Dansereau and Insp. Dave Oldford took part in this year's annual meeting, held in May in the U.K.

Member countries exchanged information, knowledge and lessons learned regarding the various data systems and user services they manage.

"Each member country is committed to furthering biometric data initiatives and the RCMP was pleased to share developments in RTID's ongoing progress with them," said Dansereau.

IIC members continue to explore methods to improve existing data sharing mechanisms while respecting and maintaining compliance with data sharing and privacy laws of each member country.

Biometric Technology Speeds Up Checks

In July, a Card Scan fingerprint capture device was deployed to RCMP E Division. The Card Scan device enables users to scan an inked C-216C fingerprint form and transmit the fingerprints electronically to the Real Time Identification (RTID) system at RCMP Headquarters in Ottawa.

The device will be used by RCMP Pacific Region and RCMP E Division Recruiting to electronically process employee fingerprints.

"Because of the volume of files we process in our region, this machine will help alleviate the turnaround time to get prints checked and returned immediately," said Lynn Prosky, Security Screening Unit manager with Pacific Region Departmental Security. "For the cadet process this is huge as we cannot process a security level clearance without the prints returned. Previously that could take several weeks."

"When we tested the sending of fingerprints during the training sessions, the average turnaround time was between 5-10 minutes," said Prosky. "We only had one rejected, and that was due to poor quality of the prints."

Contract details were recently announced about the Public Safety Anti Terrorism Live Scan Project where the RCMP will replace about 74 Live Scan devices over a two year period.

Live Scan is the equipment used to process employee fingerprints electronically.

RCMP's A Division also recently received a Live Scan device to process employee prints.

CCRTIS Awards Contract Through Public Security Initiative

On August 28 2009, the Canadian Criminal Real Time Identification Services (CCRTIS) awarded a contract to Sagem Sécurité Canada/MorphoTrak for the replacement and ongoing maintenance of Livescan devices. The vendor is scheduled to commence CCRTIS Livescan development in early September 2009.

Through the Public Security initiative and under the management and direction of CCRTIS, Livescan devices will be strategically located across Canada. Livescan devices will be deployed over the next two years to approximately 70 Canadian police departments and RCMP Detachments. The devices will replace existing Livescans that are nearing the end of their technological life cycle. The new Livescans will be compliant with the current Real Time Identification (RTID) submission standards.

MorphoTrak is a subsidiary of Sagem Sécurité (SAFRAN Group) that provides biometric and identity management solutions to the U.S. and Canadian markets. MorphoTrak formed in April 2009 from the merger of Sagem Morpho, Inc and Motorola’s biometric division, Printrak.

Here's How

Civil Fingerprint Screening Services (CFSS, a business line within CCRTIS) processes between 15,000 and 20,000 civil fingerprint submissions every month.

If a civil submission does not have the correct information, it may be returned to the contributing agency. To help contributors, we have listed some of the common reasons for returned civil fingerprint submissions:

• Handwriting on the C-216C form is illegible. Information is entered in the wrong areas of the documents.
• Information is missing (e.g. Full name, date of birth, sex, mailing address, agency name, agency identifier (ORI)).
• Reason for application is missing or incomplete.
• Processing fee is missing. Information on the processing fee may be found at: www.rcmp-grc.gc.ca/cr-cj/fee-frais-eng.htm.
• Third party consent form is missing for results that are intended for a third party.

Contributors should keep these reasons in mind when completing civil fingerprint submissions. This will help reduce the number of submissions that are returned to contributors. Applicants should also verify their personal information on the C-216C (e.g. correct spelling) prior to giving consent for the submission.

Contact us

RCMP National Police Services Building
1200 Vanier Parkway
Ottawa Ontario K1A 0R2
CCRTIS-SCICTR@rcmp-grc.gc.ca