I know for a fact there are people in this world who happen to be lucky enough to have the same first name and surname as yours truly.
Thankfully, none of those guys live on my street.
I tell you this to begin a tale of a Vancouver resident who coincidentally lives on the same street as a guy who shares the same name.
What are the chances, right?
Let’s call them Guy A and Guy B.
Turns out Guy A had an interest in volunteering at the Hastings-Sunrise community policing centre. So he applied to volunteer.
Unfortunately, the Vancouver Police Department rejected his application. Guy A wanted to know why, so he asked and no reason was given.
So he made a request under the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act to find out. He attached a copy of his driver’s licence to the form to help with the search.
He received a letter but, again, received no answer as to why he was rejected. Subsequently, he wrote a letter asking the VPD for all records and documents related to him.
He hit the motherlode, he thought, when he received a package that contained 11 pages of documents.
But guess what?
The documents were all related to his neighbour, Guy B, who happens to have a criminal record. There was nothing in the package about Guy A, let alone an explanation of why he didn’t get the volunteer gig at the community policing centre.
And, yes, he was more than a little upset.
Here’s an excerpt of a letter he wrote to the police board:
“It is appalling to discover that my identity is tied to a criminal, unknowingly. How can this happen in today’s society with all the security and technology available? Who is going to be held responsible, accountable and liable for this sordid mess?”
He went on to say the mix-up by the VPD caused him considerable stress, anxiety and loss of enjoyment of life. He added that “I have always been a good citizen and consider myself law abiding.”
So what happened?
According to VPD senior staffer Dawna Marshall-Cope, a mistake occurred in the department’s information and privacy unit when someone forgot to match the driver’s licence with Guy A’s information request.
Though Guy A and Guy B share the same name, live on the same street and each have two of the same digits in their address, they were actually born on different dates.
“Had it have been checked on the driver’s licence, which we need to process a request, it wouldn’t have happened,” Marshall-Cope told the police board at its June 19 meeting. “So it was a human error, it’s not a systemic error. It was very unfortunate. We treat it very, very seriously.”
Marshall-Cope said the department checked to ensure Guy A’s information wasn’t circulated to anybody else, including Guy B. The VPD also requested Guy A return Guy B’s information.
She said the VPD has apologized verbally and in writing to Guy A and notified Guy B about the mistake; hmmm, wonder what his reaction was?
“It was a mistake and I don’t think there needs to be a change to any of our policies or systems,” Marshall-Cope added.
Guy A, meanwhile, still doesn’t know why he didn’t get the volunteer gig at the community policing centre. And citing privacy reasons, the department is not going to tell me, either.
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