Investigators from 11 jurisdictions share data, technology to track terrorist, fight criminals

SECURITY

Law enforcement agencies spread out across the country will now be able to act as a single force

Canadian law enforcement and intelligence agencies are counting on IT to help them combat organized crime and terrorist activity.

The Combined Forces Special Enforcement (CSFU) and the Integrated Security Enforcement (INSET) teams recently announced the opening of a Toronto-based operational centre.

The 50,000 sq. ft. facility was created using a $22 million fund made available by the Federal Public Security and Anti-Terrorism initiative, officials said.

Both CSFU and INSET are funded and administered by the RCMP.

The centre is for investigators from 11 municipal, provincial and federal agencies to co-ordinate efforts in fighting and preventing organized crime and terrorist activity.

The information and communications technology will enable officers from jurisdictions such as Vancouver and Toronto to share information and co-ordinate investigative efforts, said CFSEU/INSET chief superintendent Ben Soave.

Information sharing on this scale has not been possible before but is crucial, he said, in order to fight against the increasingly sophisticated modes of operation organized criminals employ.

"Our opponent is a . . . criminal increasingly familiar with most of our investigative techniques and one who knows no borders," he said.

The centre will be home to some 165 investigators and numerous support staff from various agencies. Investigators from one agency will be able to access the databases of the other 10 member agencies in search of information that may aid their work, explained RCMP Commissioner Giuliano Zaccardelli.

"It will mean that reaching out over jurisdictions will be as easy as walking down the hall," he said.

Soave said there is already a high level of co-operation between Canada's law enforcement agencies but the centre's technology including videoconferencing and simultaneous translation, will help these geographically separated groups to act as a single force. Information will now also be shared between teams that wouldn't normally collaborate because of the diverse nature of their work, said Ontario Attorney General David Young. Divisions like organized crime and anti-terrorist squads, for example, may not cross paths often and may seem to be pursuing two different criminal elements. And yet, "in the course of organized crime investigations we often come across information that would be applicable to anti-terrorist investigations," he said.

The centre will also rely on IT to allow for speedy alerts in case of emergency, said INSET member Reg King. So if a crime has been committed or a terrorist attack carried out, critical information can be sent out to law enforcement officers across Canada and even to the U.S. almost instantaneously.

"Say I have a picture of a box cutter and I need to explain it quickly. I can just broadcast the picture across the country," he said. King said the centre would also use mapping, imaging and global positioning technologies as well as transmitting video feeds from police helicopters. "So when the Pope was at Toronto's Downsview Park last summer," King said, "we could now actually watch the crowd from within the centre and look for potential trouble spots."

Satellite video feeds will also allow officers to use the centre as a training facility, King said.

All of these technologies are supposed to help the police move from a reactive force to a proactive one, Zaccardelli said. Law enforcement officers should be aware of any potential dangers to Canadians so they can more effectively carry out their protective role, he said.

Zaccardelli stressed that a lot of the technology employed at the new operational centre has been used by police forces already, some of it for years. However, most of the sophisticated technologies were accessible only through headquarters. And it has never been possible for separate agencies to access each other's information seamlessly.

- ITBusiness.ca

Copyright Plesman Publications Ltd. Apr 2003
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