Audit of Investigator's Notes

Final Report: July 2014

This report has been reviewed in consideration of the Access to Information and Privacy Acts. An asterisk [*] appears where information has been removed; published information is UNCLASSIFIED.

Table of Contents

Acronyms and Abbreviations

CAP
Contract and Aboriginal Policing
CROPS
Criminal Operations Officer
D/COMMR
Deputy Commissioner
PPSC
Public Prosecution Service of Canada
PRIME
Police Records Information Management Environment
PROS
Police Reporting Occurrence System
RCMP
Royal Canadian Mounted Police
RMS
Records Management System
ULQA
Unit Level Quality Assurance

Executive Summary

Investigator's notes and note-taking are a fundamental component of police work. Among other things, notes serve to refresh memory, justify decisions made and actions taken, record evidence and support prosecutions. Investigator's notes have always been part of ongoing internal reviews and in recent years have been examined by external partners such as the Public Prosecution Services Canada, heightening awareness regarding the importance of note-taking in policing.

RCMP Internal Audit conducted an audit of Investigator's Notes with the objective to provide assurance that the processes and practices used to maintain investigator's notes were adequate to ensure compliance with relevant policies in order to support investigations, corroborate evidence, and maintain the credibility of a member's testimony in court. The results of the audit determined that investigator's notes are being recorded in a timely manner and are mostly compliant with policy requirements; however, there remains room for improvement. For example, enhanced supervisory review of notebooks would maximize the likelihood that key components required by policy are adhered to.

The evolving practice of using Records Management System (RMS) reports as a replacement to the commonly used hardcopy notebook needs to be assessed given that there is no consensus among the courts as to whether or not RMS reports can be used by members at all times as a memory aid while testifying.

Finally, additional guidance is needed with respect to the retention of hardcopy notebooks of members who retire or leave the RCMP in order to minimize the risk that original police notes will not be available when and if required in the future.

Three recommendations are made to address the risks involved with the current practices with Investigator's Notes within the RCMP. In response, immediate steps were taken to notify Commanding Officers of concerns identified in the audit, and actions were taken to address deficiencies.

Internal Audit will monitor the implementation of management action plans to address the recommendations and undertake a follow-up audit if warranted.

Management's Response to the Audit

The audit has highlighted areas of risk for the Divisions to be mindful of in their oversight of investigator's notes and life cycle. The issues surfaced are noteworthy and best addressed through increased monitoring.

Although policies and procedures do currently exist to assist members when taking notes, there remains a gap in certain areas including, but not limited to; storage, retention, access, roles and responsibilities and protection of information. It should be noted, that in advance of this audit, the process of ever-greening national investigator's notes policy, Operations Manual 25.2 was well underway.

Information Management Branch, Contract and Aboriginal Policing and Legal Services have been collaborating to improve the policies, standards and procedures related to investigator notes. Several of the deficiencies noted within this audit are specifically being addressed within the revised policy. These revised directives will further define the roles and responsibilities of all participants in the care, handling, review and retention of members notes. It is anticipated that this policy will be completed by January 2015.

The most significant issue at this time is the storage and handling of notebooks by members post-employment. A collaborative effort must be undertaken to address the current practice being mindful of the variety of risks with respect to current legislation and policies (Privacy Act, Criminal Records Act, Access to Information, record keeping and security policy). A consensus will be required by key stakeholders, the respective policy centres and business lines on the best option to pursue moving forward for the management of notebooks.

In summary, the audit report highlights areas of risk relative to Investigator's Notes, the absence of handwritten notes, supervisory review and the retention and storage practices by police officers. The scrutiny provided by this review process and the resulting recommendations are of tremendous value to the organization. The Audit has spurred a collective, organizational assessment of investigator's notes that will invariably ameliorate effective risk mitigation strategies.

Janice Armstrong
Deputy Commissioner
Contract and Aboriginal Policing

1. Background

Entries made within an Investigator's Notebook are designed to record evidence and member's actions and observations related to an occurrence, justify decisions made and refresh the memory of the member when testifying in court. A member's report on an occurrence is comprised of information entered into a report stored in a RMS based on the handwritten entry within that member's notebook.

Contract and Aboriginal Policing (CAP) is responsible for the policy on Investigator's Notes. The policy outlines the requirements for the management, use and retention of Investigator's Notes, and provides details on the requirements for maintaining a notebook.

Police note-taking and the retention of notebooks has been an ongoing concern for many years. These concerns include the identification and retrieval of officer's notebooks and the quality of notes for cases under appeal. In 2011, the Public Prosecution Service of Canada (PPSC) issued an update to their 2005 report on wrongful convictions. Footnote 1 Within this report, issues relating to police note-taking and the inadequate retention of police notebooks were identified. The report concluded that despite the efforts to improve police note-taking practices and changes made to police forces retention policies since 2005, the problems still appear with sufficient frequency to justify continued focus on this issue.

Given the importance and recommendations raised in recent years, the Commissioner approved an engagement on Investigator's Notes in the 2013-16 Risk-Based Audit Plan.

2. Objective, Scope, Methodology and Statement of Conformance

2.1 Objective

The audit objective was to provide assurance that the processes and practices used to maintain investigator's notes were adequate to ensure compliance with relevant policies in order to support investigations, corroborate evidence, and maintain the credibility of a member's testimony in court.

2.2 Scope

The audit scope consisted of an assessment of notes taken by Regular Members working in general duty contract policing. In addition, the operation of the CAP policy centre within National Headquarters was also included. Notebooks specifically used for recording source-related information were excluded.

2.3 Methodology

Planning for the audit was completed in January 2014. In this phase, the audit team conducted interviews and examined relevant policies, guidance, training material, legal opinions and results from previous Management Reviews on the subject of notebooks. A risk questionnaire was also sent to Criminal Operations Officers (CROPS) in all Divisions to solicit feedback in the planning phase. Note-taking procedures and policies from other policing bodies were also reviewed. The audit team conducted a planning site visit to a Detachment to review notebooks and related procedures in order to develop the audit testing approach.

Examination was conducted through site visits in 16 detachments across four Divisions. These sites were judgmentally selected based on the number of occurrences resulting in a Criminal Code charge, the number of members, the geographic dispersion, the travel distance between the detachments and the associated travel costs. During these visits, 217 notebooks were reviewed for compliance with policies. Three hundred and five occurrence reports entered into the RMS were compared with the supporting notes contained in investigator's notebooks to assess timeliness of note-taking. The occurrence reports for this audit were contained in both the Police Reporting Occurrence System (PROS) and Police Records Information Management Environment (PRIME). Ninety-one members were also interviewed to document the awareness of their responsibilities, note-taking practices, training received, extent of supervisory review and their notebook retention procedures.

2.4 Statement of Conformance

The audit engagement conforms with the Internal Auditing Standards for the Government of Canada, as supported by the results of the quality assurance and improvement program.

3. Audit Findings

3.1 Timeliness of Note-taking

Notes are recorded within 24 hours of the occurrence.

The policy on Investigator's Notes requires that "Members must make written and/or electronic notes at the first available opportunity in order to articulate observations made and actions taken during the course of their duties". Footnote 2 Notes should be taken as soon as possible and when the member can do so safely. The minimum timeframe for recording occurrence notes is not defined in policy however; the guidelines on note-taking indicate that notes should be completed by the end of the member's shift or within 24 hours. Notes made in a notebook have traditionally been used as a reference by members testifying in court.

In order to assess timeliness of note-taking, the time of entry into the RMS and the entry in the notebook were compared to the time of the occurrence. For the vast majority of the occurrence reports tested, the occurrence details had been entered into the RMS or into a notebook within 24 hours. In most of the occurrences reviewed, the level of detail contained in the RMS report exceeded the level of detail found in the notebook. A few instances were observed where the occurrence reports were entered into the RMS 72 hours or beyond the time of the occurrence and had no corresponding notebook entry to support the level of detail in the report.

While most electronic notes are being created in the RMS on a timely basis, the policy states that the contents of RMS occurrence reports "which are not made contemporaneously to an event are not considered notes and are not a substitute for an investigator's notebook." Footnote 3 Accordingly, in the few instances where occurrences are not entered in a timely manner, the notebook is the main source of reference for members testifying in court.

Several members interviewed indicated that they had been permitted to refer to a copy of their RMS occurrence report while testifying in court. We were advised that this practice is dependent on the presiding judge. Given the uncertainty around the ability of members to use the RMS report to refresh their memory while testifying, the organization needs to assess the risk this poses when handwritten notes do not exist or are limited in comparison to the detail found in a RMS report.

3.2 Compliance and Supervision of Notebooks

Notebooks did not always have all of the core components required by policy, and supervisory review of notebooks was not occurring as required. However notes entered into the RMS are subject to supervisory review.

The policy and associated guidelines define the core components for a notebook. Some of the core components include the following:

  • the cover of the notebook should contain:
    • Member's name and regimental number;
    • Work location;
    • The time period covered by the book;
  • all numbered pages within notebook should be accounted for;
  • the notebook should not contain blank spaces or pages;
  • corrections are lined and are still readable, and the correction is initialed by the member.

In addition, notebooks are to be reviewed, signed and dated monthly by the supervisor to verify the quality and content. Any omissions of the core components could have varying degrees of impact on the integrity of the notebook.

Our review of the sampled notebooks determined that all notebooks were stitch-bound, with pre-printed, pre-numbered pages, and had notes written in ink. The vast majority of the entries were dated, used 24 hour time format, were legible, were related to police business only, and used appropriate language.

Although some notebooks reviewed did not have a name or a regimental number on the notebook cover, while others did not list the start and end date of the book on the cover, there were other methods to determine this information. This said, it is unlikely these missing components would affect the integrity of the information contained within the notebook.

Conversely, there were notebooks that had missing pages and blank spaces. In a small number of the notebooks reviewed, pages were missing, and a number of blank spaces were observed in some of the books. In addition, where a correction was made, a large majority had changes that were lined through with a single line as required by policy but only a portion of those changes were initialed.

Although policy lists that the most serious offence contained within the notebook is to be listed on the notebook cover, testing determined that none of the books were compliant with this requirement. Given this result, its necessity should be re-assessed.

Supervisory Review

In 2011 the requirement for monthly supervisory review was added to the policy in conjunction with the requirement to conduct a bi-annual Unit Level Quality Assurance (ULQA) on notebooks. Of the detachments visited, two had a monthly supervisory review process in place that aligned with policy. In addition, half of the detachments visited had completed the ULQA requirement in the past two years.

Given that each notebook reviewed spanned an average of 4 months, supervisory review should have been evident. Results indicated that a majority of the notebooks examined had no evidence of supervisory review. This result was further supported when more than half of the supervisors interviewed indicated they did not review notebooks. As a mitigating measure, the supervisors stated they reviewed and approved the RMS reports as required by the systems, as well as the court disclosure packages that contained a copy of the member's notebook entry relevant to the occurrence. While these measures are necessary, they do not address the intent of the supervisory component related to notebooks. Without reviewing the physical notebook it is difficult to provide assurance on compliance with the requirements stated in the policy. It is also difficult to assess timeliness of note-taking and detect any areas where improvements may be needed.

The results indicate that notebooks are not fully compliant to policy, in particular the requirement for supervisory review. The risks associated with non-compliant notebooks need to be identified and appropriately addressed.

3.3 Retention of Notebooks

The retention and storage of notebooks for members who leave the Force or retire is not defined.

The RCMP policy on Investigator's Notes identifies that notebooks are the property of the RCMP and are to be safeguarded by each member. This policy further states that notebooks will only be destroyed with the authorization of the appropriate commander. It also includes the following retention requirements:

  • until the file purge date of the most serious offence contained in the notebook is reached;
  • two years from the date of the last formal request for access under the Privacy Act or Access to Information Act;
  • two years from the last entry;
  • the conclusion of all civil, criminal actions and appeals; or
  • the expiration of limitation of action, whichever is greater.

Despite the policy requirements concerning retention, it was confirmed through interviews that notebooks were being retained by members indefinitely and there was no indication any had been destroyed. This practice aligns with the guidelines supporting the policy on Investigator's Note's which states that notes are not to be destroyed no matter how old they are. [*] Given the variety of storage locations of completed notebooks, the RCMP's ability to search for and locate notebooks may be impeded. The retention and retrieval of police notebooks have been raised as areas of concern in the 2005 and 2011 reports by the PPSC.

The notebooks are the property of the RCMP, and better guidance is required regarding the storage of notebooks for members who leave the Force or are retired. [*] The absence of this guidance poses a risk that notebooks may not be accessible if and when required.

While efforts were made to find an approach to the retention of notebooks, the CAP policy centre in concert with Information Management, made little progress. [*] The risks the current practices pose to the organization need to be assessed in order to ensure they are not above the tolerance level of senior management.

4. Recommendations

  1. D/Commr CAP should identify and assess the risks that the absence of handwritten notes poses to the organization, and take appropriate action to mitigate those risks.
  2. D/Commr CAP in collaboration with Commanding Officers should establish mechanisms to ensure that supervisory review has been completed and appropriately documented as per policy to address issues of non-compliance.
  3. D/Commr CAP should assess and document the risks that the current retention and storage practices pose to the organization, specifically as they relate to members who retire or leave the Force and take appropriate action.

5. Conclusion

Notebooks continue to be a fundamental tool used in police investigations and remain the main source of reference for members testifying in court. Although there is an RMS report for every police occurrence, there are no established practices to use these reports as a replacement for handwritten notes. Notebooks did not always have all of the core components required by policy, and supervisory review of notebooks was not occurring as required. Some of the areas of non-compliance need to be addressed and require management's attention. The completion and documentation of regular supervisory review of notebooks would increase the rate of policy compliance.

The retention and storage of notebooks continues to be an area of concern. The RCMP would benefit from the awareness of the risks associated with the current practices.

Appendix A - Audit Objective and Criteria

Objective: To provide assurance that the processes and practices used to maintain investigator's notes were adequate to ensure compliance with relevant policies in order to support investigations, corroborate evidence, and maintain the credibility of a member's testimony in court.

Criterion 1:
Operational policies exist to guide Investigators and mitigate the risks involved.
Criterion 2:
Oversight mechanisms are in place to monitor compliance with relevant policy and mitigate the risk of non-compliance.
Criterion 3:
Employees are aware of their accountabilities, and are equipped with training, tools and resources to fulfill their responsibilities.
Criterion 4:
Note-taking is done in compliance with relevant policies and legislation.

Appendix B - POLICY, GUIDELINES & EXTERNAL REPORTS REFERENCES

RCMP Policy

RCMP Operations Manual

RCMP Guidelines

RCMP Investigator's Toolbox

External Reports

Canada, Public Prosecution Service of Canada, Federal/Provincial/Territorial Heads of Prosecution, The Path to Justice: Preventing Wrongful Convictions, Subcommittee on the Prevention of Wrongful Convictions, Fall 2011, Chapter 11.

Office of the Comptroller General of Canada

Audit Criteria related to the Management Accountability Framework: A Tool for Internal Auditors, March 2011

Date modified: