Stop sharing suicide attempt info, privacy commissioner tells police

Police should stop disclosing information about Ontarians’ suicide attempts to the database accessible by the FBI and U.S. border officials, Ontario’s information and privacy commissioner says.

Ann Cavoukian made the recommendation in a new report issued Monday morning. Cavoukian launched an investigation after a rash of complaints from Ontarians who said they were denied entry to the United States based on their mental health history.

Personal health histories can be part of the information police collect when they are called to an incident in which someone has threatened or attempted suicide. However, police forces across the province deal with this information differently, Cavoukian found. Some automatically upload the information to the Canadian Police Information Centre (CPIC) database, which is accessible by Canadian law enforcement agencies, as well as the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

The FBI, in turn, grants access to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, which includes U.S. border officials.

Cavoukian says police forces should stop automatically uploading or disclosing personal information related to suicide threats or attempts unless there is a threat to public safety.

“The untenable practice of automatic or blanket sharing of police information related to suicide threats or attempts simply cannot continue," Cavoukian said in a statement accompanying her report.

Police should ensure that the Mental Health Disclosure Test (MHDT) criteria are met before they disclose suicide threats or attempts to CPIC, Cavoukian says. The test requires that one of four circumstances exist before suicide-related information is shared. Those circumstances are:

• the suicide attempt involved the threat of serious violence or harm, or the actual use of serious violence or harm directed at others.
• the suicide attempt could reasonably be considered to be an intentional provocation of a lethal response by police.
• the individual involved had a history of serious violence or harm to others.
• the suicide attempt occurred while an individual was in police custody.

The report contains three other recommendations for police:

• Develop a “clear and transparent process” for individuals to have information related to a suicide threat or attempt removed from CPIC.
• Base a decision to renew an entry on CPIC on the MHDT.
• Remove any CPIC entries that do not meet the MHDT.

"I am confident that with the implementation of the Mental Health Disclosure Test, police services will be in a position to perform their vital functions and protect the privacy of Ontarians,” Cavoukian writes.

Cavoukian launched her investigation last year after a handful of cases came to light in which travellers said they were prohibited from entering the U.S. based on past health information.

One woman, Ellen Richardson, reported late last year that she was not allowedthrough U.S. border control at Pearson International Airport because she was hospitalized in June 2012 for treatment for clinical depression. Richardson had also attempted suicide in 2001 by jumping off a bridge. The incident left her a quadriplegic.

Richardson said she had travelled to the United States several times without incident. But last November, a U.S. customs agent cited the U.S. Immigration and Nationality Act, which prohibits people who have had a physical or mental disorder that may pose “a threat to the property, safety or welfare” of themselves or others from entering the country

Richardson said she does not recall having any interaction with police during her 2012 hospitalization. She did summon her mother to her home and her mother called 911, she said.

Cavoukian says she ruled out the possibility that the Ontario Ministry of Health was disclosing information to border officials, and so focused on police information-sharing protocols surrounding suicide threats and attempts.

She notes in her report that there aren’t any laws requiring that information be entered into the CPIC database. Police services in Hamilton, the Region of Waterloo, Ottawa and the Ontario Provincial Police “all exercise some discretion” in determining what information to share to CPIC, she says.

Toronto police policy is that officers “automatically disclose” information about every suicide threat or attempt to CPIC.

“The indiscriminate disclosure of all personal information relating to suicide attempts or threats is not in compliance with section 32 of the Municipal Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act, and its provincial equivalent,” Cavoukian said.

“By applying the MHDT, police services will ensure that incidents of attempted suicide are only disclosed to CPIC in limited and justifiable circumstances.”

NDP MP Mike Sullivan, who represents Richardson’s riding of York South-Weston, called on Public Safety Minister Rob Nicholson to ensure the RCMP reviews the report. The Mounties administer the CPIC database.

Sullivan said he would like Nicholson to “ask (the RCMP) to take appropriate action to ensure Canadian privacy laws are respected when sharing information with foreign agencies. I echo the words of Ontario Privacy Commissioner Ann Cavoukian; this indiscriminate sharing of personal information is crossing the line, and should be stopped.”