In the News Article

Getting Printed is Getting Faster; Despite Privacy Concerns, Demand for ID Checks is Growing

It’s not quite up to CSI speed, but a new digital-fingerprinting service that opened yesterday will make criminal-record checks faster for Fraser Valley residents applying for citizenship, immigration and jobs in the security industry.
The new service, run by Commissionaires BC, is inside the Progressive Intercultural Community Services building on 82nd Avenue in Surrey.

“Surrey has a fast-growing population with a strong new immigrant sector that needs this service,” Commissionaires BC chief executive Allen Batchelar said yesterday.

The process works using an optical scanner that captures the applicant’s fingerprints. The image is sent by e-mail to the RCMP’s Canadian Criminal Real Time Information System, where it is checked against a criminal-record database. The results are then returned to the applicant in about 10 days, as opposed to the 120 days it usually takes when done manually at a local police station.

“It’s relatively new technology,” said Batchelar. “People watch [the TV show] CSI and think you can run fingerprints in five seconds. That’s not reality . . . [but] this is much faster than the traditional system. You don’t have to dip your finger in black ink anymore.”

The Vancouver office of Commissionaires BC, which was the first in the province to offer the digital service, has been used by about 2,300 people so far this year. A similar service in Toronto has been used by about 12,000 people.

Batchelar said fingerprints are usually required for people applying for immigration status, Canadian citizenship, visas for travel in foreign countries such as Dubai, and international-adoption applications.

“The business is expanding rapidly,” he said, crediting the “increased awareness of security” after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. The 2010 Olympics are expected to increase business still more.

Commissionaires also see people who require a detailed criminal-record check for a growing number of jobs, including some car dealerships and security companies.

It’s a trend that concerns B.C. Civil Liberties Association board member Richard Rosenberg. The privacy expert would like to see strict rules governing the use of such information, especially by private companies.

“We’re seeing more and more of this in the private domain,” he said yesterday. “The concern is that it could be handled inappropriately.”

Rosenberg pointed to concerns about selling private information and the question of what happens to the fingerprint records when an employee leaves a company.

“There need to be rules to ensure it is destroyed,” he said.

Batchelar said Commissionaires BC does not store the digital-fingerprint information and RCMP are not allowed to keep it on file unless the person is applying to the police force or military.

n A strike by a small number of Commissionaires BC employees is ongoing. Commissionaires employs about 1,600 people in B.C. in a variety of security positions, including at air and sea ports, border crossings and government facilities.

Thirty-eight Commissionaires employees contracted out to the Canadian Border Services Agency and unionized under the Public Service Alliance of Canada went on strike Monday over safety concerns.

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