Pre-employment Polygraph (PEP) Testing Initiative
Executive summary
The scope of the Privacy Impact Assessment (PIA) for Pre-employment Polygraph (PEP) is limited to the implementation of the PEP testing as a part of the existing candidate screening process. PEP is a method of testing the veracity and integrity of Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) applicants. It is viewed as "one stage" in the multi-staged RCMP selection process which will assist Human Resources in identifying applicants who are not suitable for employment due to issues of integrity, dishonesty and criminal activity. PEP is intended to apply only to Regular Member (RM) applicants at this time. It is understood that this PIA is limited to the implementation of PEP as part of the selection process for Regular Members and will be updated/amended should its use be extended to Civilian Members (CM) and/or Public Service Employees (PSE) in the future.
The RCMP is a key law enforcement service provider to Canada and Canadians at federal, provincial and municipal levels. The law enforcement services offered are varied and wide, and range from protecting Canadians, Canadian businesses and visitors to Canada, to protecting Canadians and Canadian interests abroad. In various ways, the RCMP helps to ensure Safe Homes and Safe Communities . As such, the RCMP is a major law enforcement employer in Canada with an establishment of approximately 21,000 employees of which over 15,000 are RMs.
In our current recruitment process, we assess honesty and integrity utilizing a suitability interview, as well as in the Security/Reliability Interview and Field Investigation. However, using PEP as an additional screening tool would enhance our ability to screen out undesirable candidates and verify the truthfulness of RCMP recruit candidates.
Even though we realize that PEP is not the solution to all bad behavior problems and that some RMs may be coerced into undesirable behavior at some point in their career, we still believe that the RCMP would be better equipped to compete with other police agencies for honest and integral recruits with the implementation of PEP testing. The PEP testing will be one more tool to put the RCMP at par with other major police agencies.
PEP means a better chance to ensure the Force is recruiting the right person for the job of police officer and to ensure a reduction in Criminal Code violations by members, thus ensuring the RCMP would be in a better position to fulfill its mandate of providing " Safer Homes and Safer Communities for Canadians ".
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