The RTID Report - September 2008

…the status of improvements to the efficiency of Canada ’s national fingerprint and criminal record repository

Real Time Identification Project Will Upgrade System Platform 
Long Term System Improvements have Short Term Impact

An initial requirement of the Real Time Identification ( RTID ) Project development work was to build the automated fingerprint and criminal records systems to work with the existing platform (BEA Web Logic Version 8) supported by the RCMP Chief Information Officer Sector for National Police Services (NPS) applications.   This requirement was established prior to the launch of the RTID Project in 2004 and, since then, a new version of the platform (BEA Web Logic Version 10) has become available.  An evaluation was undertaken by the RTID Project team to determine the viability, benefits and impact of platform upgrade to the latest version.

The evaluation of the available options indicated the latest version of the platform would better support the criminal records processes being delivered in Phase 2, could potentially improve overall system performance and provided the assurance of a vendor-supported product. As a result, the decision was taken to move forward with the upgrade. It will occur in two releases during the time period from October 2008 to February 2009.

The platform is the foundation for all RTID systems and its upgrade will impact the delivery of the remaining fingerprint functionality. The scheduled delivery date of the functionality allowing criminal fingerprints processing (and retention in the national repository, CAR Y) will be put in production in March 2009. Agency migration will be initiated following a system stabilization period.

The impact of the resulting schedule delays for the RTID Project and for external police partner agencies was a main consideration in the decision to move forward with the upgrade. The risks associated with building the criminal records component of the RTID systems on the existing platform outweighed these short term impacts. CCRTIS will continue to work closely with police agency partners to ensure they are kept informed and can access and benefit from the new system functionality at the earliest date possible.

RTID RESULTS

• The new RTID AFIS continues to produce results. As of September 2, 2008, the number of identifications made for latent fingerprints rose to 2,435. These identifications were not possible with legacy technology.
• CCRTIS clients submitting electronic fingerprints now receive responses within 72 hours (3 business days) for the majority of civil clearance fingerprint requests that do not link to a criminal file. Before RTID , delivery of this service required up to 5 months. Deliveries for other (civil clearances linked to a criminal file) fingerprint services are delayed and CCRTIS continues to work on improving delivery times.

RTID PROJECT STATUS

Automated Fingerprint Processes

Ten Print Fingerprints, Retention & Immigration

• The upgrade of the existing platform supporting the RTID application (upgrade to BEA Web Logic Version 10) has impacted the delivery of functionality to allow criminal purpose ten print fingerprint processing (fingerprints for retention in national repository) and immigration fingerprint processing.
• The delivery of this functionality has moved to spring 2009.

Automated Criminal Records Processes

• Review of all requirements to automate criminal records processing is complete and an assessment of the functionality currently provided by several legacy systems is near final.
• The detailed design of the criminal records system is proceeding in parallel with the system platform upgrade during the period from October 2008 to March 2009.
• The development of the Canadian Police Information Centre application and the associated data conversion to support the automated processing of criminal record information continues.
• The delayed delivery of fingerprint processing functionality has deferred the reallocation of resources to focus on criminal records system development work. The unavailability of resources has impacted the expected progress of this development work.
• The analysis of the complex business rules associated with charge and disposition reporting continues with measured progress. This activity involves the development of CCRTIS policy to support charge and disposition processes including submissions, management, and exception handling. The complexity of the business rules has extended the policy development cycle.

Agency Migration

Civil Fingerprints 100% Complete

• All four agencies, Transport Canada, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) (Free and Secure Trade, FAST transactions), L1 Identity Solutions Co. (formerly ComnetiX), and Commissionaires Canada, can submit fingerprint applications.
• Additional FBI FAST sites will be migrated once the sites complete an upgrade to their systems.

Latent Fingerprints 90% Complete

• The following thirteen (13) Canadian police agencies currently access the new system for processing latent fingerprints using an RTID Project-supplied transcoder:
  • Ottawa Police Service
  • Durham Regional Police Service
  • York Regional Police
  • Service de police de la Ville de Montréal
  • Niagara Regional Police Service
  • Ontario Provincial Police
  • Halton Regional Police
  • Windsor Police Service
  • Halifax Regional Police
  • Peel Regional Police
  • Regina Police Service
  • Saskatoon Police Service
  • Calgary Police Service
• Migration of the remaining eight (8) remote clients will occur in fall 2008 and complete the last (10%) of the activities involved in the overall migration process.
• Sûreté du Québec and Toronto Police Service have access to the RTID system. Work to configure their system’s interface with the transcoder is required to complete migration.
• FBI IAFIS electronic criminal ten print search capabilities are available to all operational transcoders.

Regional Automated Fingerprint Identification Access System ( RAFIAS ) Sites

• The testing required to migrate RCMP sites using RAFIAS to access the national repository for processing latent fingerprints continues.
• Migration involves many RCMP sites and a few Canadian police agencies.
• Specific planning is required to migrate BC AFIS partner agencies, RCMP “E” Division (British Columbia) and Vancouver Police Department.

CCRTIS Central Latent Operations

• Testing continues to enable the internal CCRTIS latent fingerprint processing to support RAFIAS sites.

Ten Print Fingerprints Retention & Immigration 25% Complete

• Migration will be initiated following the delivery of the ten print functionality in spring 2009 and a system stabilization period.

Agency Engagement
CCRTIS will be providing an update of the delivery of the RTID Project and the related transformation of the fingerprint processes at the Cogent International Users Group in October.  Membership in this group allows CCRTIS to share and learn from the experiences and best practices of other agencies using the same AFIS technology.

The Canadian Police Information Centre (CPIC) Information Technology Sub-committee (ITSC) received a status report on the new CCRTIS systems and the RTID Project on September 16. This update is provided regularly to inform ITSC members, who have information technology roles at various Canadian police services.

Agency Readiness – Accreditation and Certification Update
A third private fingerprinting agency has completed certification. ClearNeed is now certified to submit electronic fingerprints for verification against the national repository for:

1. Federal government employment purposes using a CardScan and LiveScan devices
2. Immigration purposes using a LiveScan device

Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) is approaching the completion of the final preparatory steps to begin the testing phase of the certification process.

Accreditation is required for private organizations to submit civil purpose fingerprints to CCRTIS for verification against the national repository. The accreditation process assesses the security and administrative operations of private fingerprinting companies to ensure compliance with accreditation standards. The existing private fingerprinting companies will be the first agencies to undergo this process to ensure compliance with accreditation standards.

Accreditation and certification information is available on the RTID Internet Web site or by contacting the CCRTIS Certification Coordinator by email at RTID_ITR_Certification@rcmp-grc.gc.ca.

Security Reminder for Paper-based Fingerprint Form Submissions
Agencies sending paper-based fingerprint submissions for processing using one of the CCRTIS pre-printed forms (C-216, C-216C, C-216R) by mail or courier are reminded to follow the appropriate forwarding guidelines provided by their carrier of choice. Following these guidelines, including adhering to content weight and package size restrictions, helps to ensure the timely arrival of submissions and prevent the incidence of security issues related to misdirected packages.

Pre-printed submission forms and envelopes pre-labeled with the CCRTIS destination address can be ordered by contacting Kathy Doyon at (613) 949-8410 (tel), (613) 952-0156 (fax) or Kathy.Doyon@rcmp-grc.gc.ca (email) .

RTID AFIS and Business Process Training
Remote transcoder refresher training continues to be provided to AFIS Working Group members.  Training coincides with transcoder migration at each site using “PC Duo” to connect to the site and share access to the remote transcoder.  To date, training has been successfully delivered to all AFIS Working Group members who have been migrated to the new system.  The RTID Project Migration Coordinator and CCRTIS Remote Network Search Advisor will contact transcoder users directly to arrange migration and training activities.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION:

Agencies:
CCRTIS Operational Support and Client Services
Email: RTID_ITR_Certification@rcmp-grc.gc.ca

General inquiries:
Email: RTID_ITR@rcmp-grc.gc.ca
or visit http://www.rcmp-grc.gc.ca/rtid/index_e.htm .

Fingerprint Submissions:
The Director,
Canadian Criminal Real Time Identification Services,
RCMP HQ,
NPS Bldg.,
1200 Vanier Parkway,
Ottawa ON, K1A 0R2