Criminals Wanted

We all roughly know that the police are aware of your criminal record (if you have one) and have some more information about you that you could be required to tell for employment, volunteering, visa or immigration purposes. In all those cases, you could be required by law to provide a police record. It contains much more information than a criminal record – for example, if you’ve been suspected or questioned by the police for a criminal offense, it could be in your police record.

If you have in any way been involved with the police in your life, that information can be found. Even if the police have taken you to the hospital, it could be in your police record.

Before you worry, the police won’t send this police record to just anyone asking for it, and even if you grant permission for the police record check to be sent, they will receive a report telling if the record is clear or if the record shows a history with an amount of detail depending of the police service.
Those records are kept usually for a period of 5 years, depending of the police service policies. Please note that it’s impossible to have a police records deleted in any other way than simply waiting for the expiration date. At least, though, there is a possibility of having the police reports corrected if you find a mistake in it.

You can ask for your police record from the police service of the municipality in which you live, and from police services where you have been living previously. You need to file a request for every single police service that may have a police record about you. You might have to pay to get access to your police record, and some police services won’t give that information unless if it’s needed for a job or volunteering.

So what are the police doing when they perform a police records check?

First, they query the CPIC (Canadian Police Information Center), which is operated by the RCMP. They will look for existing CPIC reports or criminal records information. After, they will look in their own database for information about the individual. Finally, they may call other police departments to find out if they have any information about the individual.

Since many actions can result in an arrest record, I was curious to know which have been the dumbest reasons for which people gotten arrested all over the world. Here is a list of some of the most interesting stories:

- Armed-robbery. Ok not too special here, but what if I tell you the robbers went to a hold-up with ketchup as their only “arm”?

- Scotch lover. This burglar went in a convenience store and threatened the cashier with a shotgun, wanting all the cash. While the cashier stuffed the money into a bag, the robber saw a Scotch bottle behind the counter. Unable to resist, he demanded to get the bottle as well. The cashier replied that he couldn’t give him the alcohol since he didn’t believe he was at least 21 years old. And that’s when the robber took out his wallet and showed the cashier his driving license… No wonder, he got caught 2 hours later.

- Photogenic. A man got caught by automated speed radar. He received, by mail, a ticket for 80$ and a picture of his car. He replied by sending a picture of 80$ (…) Afterwards, he received another picture, this time it was picture of handcuffs! The man finally paid his fine.

- 9111. A Canadian family grew marijuana in their own house. Logically, it would not be recommended to call 911 from there. Apparently, the son tricked his mom into call 9111, telling her that it would allow her to check whether the phone line was being spied on. Obviously, she reached the 911 emergency call center, at which point she quickly hung up. The center dispatched a car anyway. The police eventually discovered all the marijuana.

- Halloween prank. A teenager thought it would be funny to jump on his school cafeteria table and with fake bombs and a fake gun. Obviously, this was not funny - shootings in schools are simply not a laughing matter. He paid the price.

- Junk mail. Don’t be as mad as this guy who received so much junk mail in his mail box that he went to a direct marketing firm to splash gallons of white paint all over the place.

- Pick the right car. Carjackers were unlucky enough to carjack a car full of judo wrestlers.

- Pick the right man. A robber wanted to steal the cigarettes from a blind man. No luck, this guy was actually the world champion of judo for the blind.

Many stories like that happen over the world. It is always entertaining to find out about new, dumber ways to get an arrest record!