Ottawa police unveil plans for massive technology overhaul

The Ottawa Police Service is about to embark on a six-year, $42-million overhaul of its information technology systems, making it the first police force in Canada to modernize its police service since Facebook, smartphones and data analytics have taken hold.

Members showed off the plan to police chiefs from across the country at a conference this week in Ottawa.

Debra Frazer, director general of corporate services for the Ottawa Police Service, said the rebuild includes upgrading everything from "wires and the bytes" to how officers interpret data.

"We're the first to try it from an end-to-end perspective and look at all aspects at the same time... [Police chiefs] are very impressed with the courage we have," she said. "It's a game-changer."

The new infrastructure will allow officers to gather more resources and information out in the field instead of returning to the station. Frazer said the systemwill become more sophisticated at analyzing the vast amounts of data now inundating the service.

Privacy conversations

"That's the crime analysis that you see is so favoured on television these days... We can get ahead of situations. We can predict where crime will be and make the deployment of our resources much more effective," said Frazer.

Police are even looking at revamping how and fromwhere it collects data.

"I think that's a step we'll take forward as a community. To look at how comfortable we are with collecting data that is in CCTV cameras posted around the city, or within dwellings and buildings that might help solve crime. Which is the goal of all of this work," said Frazer.

Like most police departments in Canada, the Ottawa Police Service's current system dates back to 2000, with a few upgrades along the way.

"When you look at how quickly technology is changing and disrupting, we knew we had to change our program and the rate at which we invested in technology," said Fraser.

She said the system will take pressure of personnel. For example, people in Ottawa could soon apply for a criminal background check online, and receive it in 48 hours versus six weeks.

"Transactions that took two hours will take two minutes," said Frazer.

Potential job losses

But that also means potential civilian job losses.Frazer said the $42-million pricetag will be offset by savings and by eliminating jobs once done by people.

Matt Skof, head of the Ottawa Police Association, said he has questions about that.

"Is it truly efficient on the frontline,and how does it impact our investigations? Our dispatch? Our special constables?" he asked."If there are fewer positions, how isit occurring? Is it occurringfrom the temp positions or are they actually trying to incur this in the dismantling of specificpositions, like making them disappear?"

Skof applauds the move to modernize, but said he'll be watching for the bumps along the way.