Rationalized Integration (Details)

Name of province/ territory:

British Columbia

City/ Region:

Saanich

Description of Initiative:

This initiative aims to take a rationalized approach to integrating services in our region to maximize efficiency/effectiveness and impact favourably on the economics of computer forensic analysis. The idea is to spread significant costs over a region instead of individual departments picking up all overhead costs such as computer programs and training costs.

We have an officer who has been seconded to the RCMP for three years and is apprenticing as a computer forensic analyst. He is just coming back and we want to leverage his skills and work with the Victoria Police Department to develop an integrated approach to the field.

Initiative Key Objectives:

The key objective of this initiative is to share the cost of the computer forensic analysis program because of the cost of the equipment and the training is more than any one individual police department can bear. We want to offer service for a fee on files that may come forward. Really, it is about coming together at a regional level to defray the costs of computer forensic analysis.

Section Responsible for Implementation:

Detective Division

Key Contact:

Mike Chadwick
mchadwick@saanichpolice.ca

Groups/ Agencies/ Key Partners Involved:

• other police services
• police association or union

Level of Involvement (consultative - information sharing) and/or cooperative - direct involvement):

The agencies are directly involved. We had to develop the training component with the RCMP and we are discussing the integration aspect with Victoria Police Department as they also have a forensic computer analysis department.

Amount of Time Initiative has been in Place:

We haven’t implemented this initiative yet, but we started thinking about it three years ago when we sent our officer to the RCMP for training.

Reason for Undertaking the Initiative:

The driver was largely related to cost and also about providing professional service. The computer hardware and software cost a lot, and the training is extensive. It also costs money to maintain the training. Not every department can afford to have its own equipment/analysts in this area so we are looking to share the costs and ensure we have people in our region who have the skills required to do the job. We can’t always rely on the RCMP for this type of service, especially because they have national standards that are more restrictive than our provincial ones and often the files we want to work on don’t meet the RCMP’s criteria. This is a fairly new field so it makes sense to try to develop an integrated structure now while departments are figuring out how to get set up. Specialized areas such as this are prime candidates for integrated policing models.

Resources Required to Implement this Initiative:

Training takes about three years (member wages and benefits and a few pre-requisite courses) and then yearly certifications have to be obtained (about $10,000). The equipment (hardware and software) can cost up to $40,000.

Method of Implementation:

It has not been implemented yet.

Key Outcomes of the Initiative:

N/A

Availability of a Communication Strategy:

No

Key Messages used to Publicize the Initiative:

N/A

Forms of Evaluation by which the Initiative will be Assessed:

• N/A

Evaluation Completed or Community Feedback Received:

No

Summary of the Outcomes:

N/A

Summary of the Performance Measure Data Collected:

N/A

Economics of Policing Pillars:

• Efficiencies within Police Services
• New Models of Community Safety

Further Details:

N/A

Additional Comments or Suggestions:

The idea is that police departments in the region would contribute to the ongoing cost of training and keeping up with changes in infrastructure and technology. Computer forensic data recovery is a new field that we need to stay on top of. Once the program is established we will look at things like whether we use civilian members or sworn officers, or a combination. Many police officers don’t want to limit their promotion potential by staying in one field for too long, and training is expensive. Civilian members stay longer, come trained from school and only require ongoing training. They also don’t cost as much in terms of salary.

Once the initiative is operational, we would envision making this service available to two or three smaller agencies, as their need arose and as our capacity to service the need was understood. Specifically, we could reach out to our existing partners on Vancouver Island in Oak Bay and Central Saanich and any other agencies that wished to contract with us. This may extend to RCMP detachments, if they so desire, or mainland municipal agencies such as Port Moody, West Vancouver, Delta, New Westminster, Abbotsford, etc.

Integration is about trying to break down some of the silos between the departments. The goal is not to amalgamate, but to integrate, especially in specialized areas of policing. Police work is becoming more complex and complicated than it was 10 or 15 years ago so it demands a more tiered response.

For example, some types of crime (e.g., serial killings) need to be looked at from a regional level instead of independently. Different departments can specialize in different areas and this can lead to a tiered type of policing like they have in Ontario and Quebec. If you can’t provide the service yourself, you can contract for it. Right now 10% of our department is deployed in regional, provincial or national units.

Record Entry Date:

2013-08-01