Police (Street Checks and Carding) Amendment Act
Amended
Police Act, RSA 2000, cP-17
Summary
The Police (Street Checks and Carding) Amendment Act amends the Police Act and gives every police officer the authority to collect, record, retain, store, use and disclose information, including personal information, voluntarily provided by a member of the public, obtained as a result of a non-detention, non-arrest interaction with a police officer if the information is obtained in the course of
(a) crime prevention activities;
(b) gathering information for the purpose of intelligence related to individuals known or reasonably suspected to be engaged in illegal activities;
(c) inquiring into offences;
(d) inquiring into suspicious activities that may lead to detecting illegal activities; or
(e) another lawful law enforcement activity.
Although the Act prohibits police officers from “carding” which is any attempt to collect information from someone based on a discriminatory ground or the police officer’s perception that the member of the public has a characteristic associated with a prohibited ground of discrimination or a person’s socio-economic status, such prohibited ground of discrimination or socio-economic status may form part of the reason for the attempt to collect information in the search for a specific individual.
In Force: On various dates