RCMP costs soar with special B.C. computer system

By Alison Crawford, CBC News Thursday, July 16, 2009

The RCMP is paying 65 per cent more to maintain an extra computer database for its officers in British Columbia, and that system still isn't running smoothly, according to new documents released to CBC News. Records obtained through an Access to Information Act request show it costs the RCMP $22.7 million a year to run two systems — one for B.C. and one for the rest of the country. If the RCMP didn't have to support the extra database, the cost would be $13.7 million, about $9 million less. The CBC first reported in April that the RCMP's extra system for B.C., known as PRIME, was costing taxpayers the extra $9 million a year. The RCMP has to maintain PRIME because in 2003 the B.C. government ordered the force, which is contracted to serve as its provincial police, to get on board as part of a province-wide information-sharing system among all municipal forces.

Mounties everywhere else in the country use a system called PROS. Both databases allow officers across any given force or jurisdiction to share information on cases by uploading photos, witness statements and other information. The new documents obtained by the CBC — a series of reports and emails — show an exact breakdown of the systems' costs. One report, drafted by Supt. Chuck Walker to brief William Elliott when he took over as RCMP commissioner in 2007, says that to run the B.C. system, it costs $1,666 for every Mountie in B.C., and that is a "best-case scenario." It costs $1,058 per officer in the rest of the country to run their database. If all Mounties countrywide were on one single, compatible system, Walker notes that the overall cost per officer would decrease to $805.

Walker points out, though, that if the RCMP were to pull out of the B.C. system, it would have financial consequences for the B.C. municipal police forces still using the program. "The costs to the independent agencies using the system will skyrocket," the report states.

Contradictions in info released

The recent batch of documents obtained through the Access to Information Act contradicts some of the information provided to CBC News when it first reported on the two computer systems. Then, spokespeople for the RCMP said the total cost to implement the B.C. system was about $41 million. However, a day after CBC News reported the story on April 27, an email from the RCMP's executive director of financial management, Marty Muldoon, to Deputy Commissioner Darrell Madill and Chief Supt. Doug Lang said it actually cost $44.8 million. A further pitfall of the dual databases is that they are not integrated. In an earlier interview with CBC News, Assistant Commissioner Francois Bidal indicated the RCMP had addressed that problem by developing a program — a Police Information Portal (PIP) — to allow the two systems to interact. However, emails between RCMP communications personnel contain comments from Supt. Mario Beaulne stating that PIP will not be fully launched until next September. Beaulne's comments also reveal that officers using the B.C. system can't even seamlessly communicate among themselves:

"All PRIME users can share information, however only through PIP. PRIME users cannot exchange task workflow between district servers in B.C. — a key element of RMS [records management system] integration — nor can they see each others' files in their entirety." As for the price of building the PIP, an April 28 email indicates it cost $4.5 million.