2012-2013 Royal Canadian Mounted Police
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) is Canada’s national police force. It provides federal policing services to all Canadians and policing services under contract to eight of the provinces and to the territories, as well as to more than 190 municipalities, 184 Aboriginal communities and three international airports.
In 2012-13, the RCMP received 1,218 requestsFootnote 1 , which represented about 2% of all requests received government-wide in 2012-13. However, the institution received 15% fewer requests than in 2011-12 (1,434 requests). Despite the decrease in requests and consultations received in 2012-13 as compared with 2011-12, the RCMP’s overall performance was clearly below government-wide results, especially in terms of timeliness.
The RCMP completed 66.7% of all requests in its inventory in 2012-13, compared to a completion rate of 81.3% achieved in 2011-12. Furthermore, the average number of days to complete a request was 115 daysFootnote 2 in 2012-13.
More than 65% of requests were from the public and 25.2% from media in 2012-13.
Table 1: Workload
| Measures | Reporting Period 2011-12 | Reporting Period 2012-13 | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Number of requests received | 1,434 | 1,218 | -15.06% |
| Number of consultations received (from other government institutions) | 702 | 652 | -7.12% |
| Average number of pages processed per requests closed | 276 | 1,522 | 1,246 |
| % of requests for which more than 1000 pages were processed | 4.50% | 5.71% | 1.21% |
| Note: The average number of pages processed per request closed and the percentage of requests for which more than 1,000 pages were processed are calculated from the total of requests completed for which the information was disclosed (in part or totally), exempted/excluded and for requests abandoned. It excludes requests completed for the following dispositions: no records exist, requests transferred and requests treated informally. | |||
Despite a decrease in the number of requests closed, the volume of pages processed by the RCMP increased significantly, from 258,247 pages in 2011-12 to 1,252,447 in 2012-13 (385%). A majority of requests still required the processing of 100 pages or less in 2012-13 (71%).
Timeliness
The RCMP responded to 348 requests within 30 days, which represents about 35.5% of all requests closed in 2012-13. This proportion is 35% lower than in 2011-12. The proportion of requests completed that required more than 120 days also went up from 6.9% in 2011-12 to 24.4% in 2012-13.
Almost 60% of the requests completed were closed past the statutory deadline in 2012-13, an increase of about 38% as compared to 2011-12. According to our ranking, the RCMP obtained a “red alert” for this high proportion of requests completed past the statutory deadline.Footnote 3
Workload was identified as the principal reason why requests were closed late in 2012-13 (98%).
No extensions were taken for more than 94% of the requests that were closed past statutory deadline. In 2011-12, this proportion was 79%.
Each year, the OIC receives notices regarding the use of extensions for more than 30 days and compiles this information in order to generate statistics. In 2012-13, the OIC received 74 notices of extension from the RCMP, which represents a total of 85 separate extensions.
Extensions
The RCMP took 85 extensions to close the 981 requests completed in 2012-13. In comparison, a total of 110 extensions were taken to close 1,285 requests in 2011-12.
About 36.5% of the extensions taken in 2012-13 were for 30 days of less. In comparison, this proportion was 46.4% in 2011-12.
The RCMP also reported that 59% of the extensions were taken under section 9(1)(a) (interference with operations). This proportion is similar to the one observed in 2011-12.
Disclosure
Of the 981 requests completed, 13.4% of them were disclosed entirely. While this proportion is similar to the one observed in 2011-12, it is lower than the disclosure rate government-wide (21.6%).
Table 2: Performance
| Measures | Reporting Period 2011-12 | Reporting Period 2012-13 | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Completion of Requests | |||
| Completion rate | 81.28% | 66.73% | -14.55% |
| Completion Time | |||
| % of requests closed within 30 days | 70.74% | 35.47% | -35.27% |
| % of requests closed past statutory deadline | 22.18% | 59.94% | 37.76% |
| % of consultations from government institution closed within 30 days | 90.30% | 85.38% | -4.92% |
| % of extensions of 30 days or less | 46.36% | 36.47% | -9.89% |
| Level of Disclosure | |||
| % of pages processed that were disclosed | 28.52% | 61.38% | 32.86% |
| % of requests closed for which the information was disclosed entirely | 13.15% | 13.35% | 0.20% |
| Note: The completion rate represents the number of requests completed divided by the total number of requests on hand, which includes the new requests received and the requests carried over from the previous reporting period. | |||
Complaints
The number of complaints received by the OIC against the RCMP increased significantly from 68 complaints in 2011-12 to 125 in 2012-13 (83.8% increase).
Additionally, the proportion of those complaints that concerned administrative matters went up from 27.9% in 2011-12 to 56 % in 2012-13.
About 56.8% of the complaints received in 2012-13 were well-founded, while 7 complaints were not well-founded.
An additional 23 complaints were still pending (as of May 2014) and 18 were discontinued.
Footnotes
- Footnote 1
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The RCMP noted in its annual report that the general nature of requests received in 2012-13 covered a variety of topics, including contracts/program costs and expenses, security issues surrounding the G8 and G20 Summits, the 2010 Olympics, as well as management of the RCMP and operational file material.
- Footnote 2
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Based on response to parliamentary written question Q-485.
- Footnote 3
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The 2007-08 OIC report card system was used to estimate a grade: A=0 to 5%, B=5 to 10%, C=10 to 15%, D=15 to 20%, F= more than 20%. A red alert is given when the proportion of requests completed past the statutory deadline is very high.