Sectores estratègicos

The Canadian Firearms Registry On-Line (CFRO) system provides police officers access to firearms license and registration information in the Canadian Firearms Information System through an interface called the Canadian Police Information Centre. Police queried CFRO an average of 9,400 times per day in 2008. This rate is 44% higher than 2006, largely attributable to the RCMP’s increased use of the system.

In early 2007, the Canadian Firearms Program undertook an initiative to assess the usefulness of CFRO to general duty police officers. The purpose was to gain an understanding of how CFRO could be improved to offer greater assistance to the policing community as well as to identify the need for additional training.

The survey was sent to 500 police contacts from a wide variety of agencies, encouraging distribution to as many general duty officers as possible. The CFP received responses between March and July, 2007. During this period, 408 police officers from 56 police departments completed the survey with a functional breakdown as follows; 262 general duty patrol officers, 64 criminal investigators and 82 supervisors. The responses fully reflect the diversity of police departments from large to small, urban to rural, federal, municipal and provincial. The survey consisted of questions focusing on the use of CFRO and the users’ familiarity and training with the system.

Key Findings

Overall Trained Not trainedDifference Does your agency use the CFRO system?

92% 98% 86% 12%

Do you use CFRO in your day to day functions?

65% 78% 53% 25%

I use CFRO in responding to calls for service

73% 81% 65% 16%

CFRO query results influence the manner in which I handle calls for service.

69% 73% 65% 8%

In my experience, CFRO query results have proven beneficial during major operations.

The results of the survey confirm that trained general duty police officers value the information from CFRO and it has a significant impact on their day to day functions especially on service calls that could involve violence or firearms.

Police policy may be to query CFRO in responding to particular types of calls for service, yet many agencies have not provided consistent formal training to equip officers in carrying out the policy nor how to interpret the results of the queries. The results of the survey indicate that many officers who use CFRO have never had training in how to use it. The results can be disastrous (see the article below). Even if an officer understands how to query they may not understand the results they receive thus leading to an inappropriate intervention.

Police departments have dramatically increased their use of CFRO now the challenge is to train police officers to use the results they receive to improve their own and public safety.

“CSST report on Tessier's death released Montreal Gazette

If the Laval police had properly verified the gun registry they could have avoided the tragic loss of one of their officers during a botched drug raid, says the provincial work health and safety commission.

The raid ended the life of Constable Daniel Tessier after Brossard resident Basil Parasiris opened fire on Laval police officers who stormed into his home in March 2007.

The CSST's report found that the Laval police drug squad did not do a thorough check of the gun registry before they entered the house. A check was only made on the address of the Brossard home they were about to enter. Had they run Parasiris's name in the gun registry they would have learned he had a gun registered to a previous address.

The mix up was revealed during Parasiris's jury trial earlier this year. But the CSST report goes further and reveals that if the drug squad suspected Parasiris had a firearm they would have asked for assistance from a better trained and better equipped unit within the police force.

Parasiris was acquitted by the jury after he testified that he believed he and his family were about to be the victims of a home invasion when the police stormed in. The trial also raised several questions about whether Tessier was easily identifiable as a police officer that morning.

Parasiris is scheduled to be sentenced on weapons charges early next year. That includes a charge of not having a firearm registered at the proper address.”

Way Forward

The CFP has a mandate to develop a formal training program for CFRO, including assessment of options and content for training. CFP wishes to work with CPKN to develop a training tool targeted to all front-line police officers in Canada. Since CFRO is similar in nature to CPIC, we anticipate the course will be similar to the CPIC project that was undertaken in 2007.

As well, this project will build on the Firearms Identification for Public Agents (FIPA) project that is currently underway. Up to September 16th_{, 6542 participants have registered to the FIPA pilot. Of}

these, 946 have started the course and 492 have successfully completed the course with a passing score of 80% or higher. Based on survey results to date, the FIPA Pilot is an overwhelming success. Of all survey respondents, 93% indicated that they achieved their expected learning objectives with this course. Eighty-nine per cent (89%) responded that this course increased their knowledge and confidence when identifying firearms and improved their understanding of the Firearms Reference Table. Eighty-nine per cent (89%) of participants also indicated that they would recommend this course to their colleagues.