Benefits of Working With Your Local Police

Third-party private companies that provide police employment record checks may not be providing you with full information. These companies contract with smaller police services throughout Canada to conduct CPIC queries of their client applicants. A CPIC query will only reveal if the subject of the query has:

A record of criminal convictions across Canada for which fingerprints were taken;
In some cases they may also offer the Vulnerable Sector query.

While this may be useful and sufficient for some employers, there can be additional information in police databanks that is not accessed or available to these third-party companies, and which may be of significant importance in the screening of a potential employee or volunteer.

Municipal and provincial police departments offer the same CPIC checks, but also additional information that can provide more comprehensive results, including but not limited to:

Local criminal convictions for which fingerprints were not taken (these are not captured on the CPIC national database);
Police contact information involving criminal activity that led to charges but not convictions, or that may not have led to charges;
Any charges currently before the courts that have not yet been resolved;
Judicial orders, peace bonds or prohibitions imposed on the subject that are currently in effect.

In order to ensure all potentially relevant information is made available for consideration, agencies and employers should consider utilizing local police departments to conduct record checks on their volunteer and employment applicants.

The absence of these queries may not be clearly communicated by third-party companies who do not have access to this information. Know the type of information you will be getting - as well as what you might not be getting. It could be very important!