OTTAWA—Putting a stop to the police practice of asking telecoms to simply turn over customers’ data without a warrant has not significantly hindered the RCMP’s work, internal documents show.

An internal RCMP survey conducted months after the Supreme Court limited the police’s ability to access personal information without a warrant says the ruling has had no “significant negative effects” on operations.

According to the documents, there is a general sentiment within the force that the court’s decision, known as Spencer, would cause investigative delays. But only 18 per cent of Mounties responding to the survey said they had any difficulty obtaining a production order for sensitive information they previously got informally.

“It appears that the biggest shift is that law enforcement is no longer able to rely on voluntary enforcement requests, and that the process of drafting and obtaining a production order or other judicial authorization is more time-consuming and rigorous,” reads the internal report, obtained by the Star under access to information law.

“The respondents mostly indicate that this decision has resulted in investigative delays, but not necessarily derailing investigations or changing ultimate outcomes.”

In 2011, nine companies were asked by law enforcement and government agencies to voluntarily hand over their customers’ personal information a total of 1.2 million times.

Privacy advocates called those numbers “jaw-dropping,” far surpassing long-standing suspicions about police access to private citizens’ personal information.

A joint investigation by the Star and the Halifax Chronicle Herald revealed that police and government had made a similar number of warrantless requests for years.

In June 2014, the Supreme Court ruled the practice must be limited to emergency situations, and most of the so-called voluntary disclosures actually require judicial authorization.

Proponents of “lawful access” policies argue that requiring police to get judicial authorization for “phone book data” — things like names, addresses, telephone numbers and Internet protocol (IP) addresses — would bury cops in paperwork.

According to the November 2014 RCMP report, that didn’t happen.

Michael Geist, a privacy and Internet law researcher at the University of Ottawa, said the report appears to counter speculation that the Spencer ruling would tie police agencies’ hands.

“There’s been a number of stories that have circulated that have tried to strike a bit of fear into the issue by saying that somehow this was having a negative impact,” said Geist, who writes a weekly column in the Star.

“I think the reaction of many in the privacy community was that the system is working as it should. Not that we want law enforcement to have problems, but when it’s appropriate to get a warrant, they should be getting a warrant.”

The report also notes that while the number of warrantless requests has dropped sharply, there has been only a slight increase in production orders.

The RCMP survey was conducted two months after the Spencer decision, and the report warns that the full impact will be known only in the coming years.

The report recommends the RCMP begin to track data related to informal law enforcement requests for information, and how many production orders are sought by each division. Up to now, that data has not been tracked, which has led Privacy Commissioner Daniel Therrien’s office to conclude they could not investigate the RCMP’s use of warrantless requests.

The Star requested an interview with the RCMP for this article. The force’s communication branch said nobody was available to speak on the issue.

In a written statement, Const. Annie Delisle said that the survey was conducted months after Spencer and recommended more study.

“The survey was a limited preliminary analysis of the impacts of (the) Spencer decision on investigation specifically within the RCMP’s Federal Policing section, less than three months after (the) Supreme Court ruling,” Delisle wrote.

“Respondents indicated that preparing production orders takes significantly longer than most voluntary law enforcement requests … The survey suggests that this issue requires further study and analysis.”

The debate over ‘lawful access’

September 2007 — CBC News reports the Conservative government is considering “lawful access” legislation to allow police to obtain personal information without a warrant. Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day later says that’s off the table.

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February 2012 — The Conservatives table Bill C-30, their fourth crack at lawful access laws, which dies after Public Safety Minister Vic Toews said Canadians either stand with the government or support child predators.

June 2014 — The Supreme Court requires police to obtain judicial authorization to access basic subscriber information, except in emergency situations.

December 2014 — Bill C-13 becomes law, providing legal cover for telecom companies to voluntarily turn over their customers’ data without fear of legal consequences.

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