Ottawa Citizen

New computerized tracking system will help track Bernardo-type predators

MIKE OLIVEIRA

TORONTO (CP) - Following criticism that sex killer Paul Bernardo could have been captured much sooner if police had shared information, Ontario police have launched a new system to help track serial criminals.

Police forces across Ontario will soon use a computer system to retrieve and analyse data involving criminals and suspected criminals from across the province.

The Major Case Management system is driven by computer software called PowerCase that will be accessible by every member of the police force.

The program creates a cross-referencing database of information including names, personal information and details culled from police documents, court papers and other forms of evidence.

Niagara police Chief Gary Nicholls was deeply involved in the Bernardo case and said Thursday that the new system eliminates the burdens of following huge paper trails.

"In the Bernardo case, the court brief was 57 volumes, 17,000 pages. If those volumes were stood in front of you, they would reach seven feet high. That is the complexity of these investigations and the paper work we try to manage."

Ontario Solicitor General David Turnbull said the $30-million system is the most sophisticated of its kind in the world. Its progress is being followed by other police organizations, including the RCMP and the FBI.

"Our government is absolutely determined to arm the police services with the best technology to stop Bernardo-type predators in their tracks," Turnbull told a news conference.

The system will cost $6 million a year to operate.

Justice Archie Campbell, who was asked by the Ontario government to look into the Bernardo investigation, made more than two dozen recommendations in 1996 calling for better co-operation among police forces and an end to rivalry and competition between police in the province.

There were several examples in the sordid Bernardo case of lack of co-operation and communication between police forces.

Before the murders, Bernardo's DNA was collected after a string of sexual assaults in Scarborough, an east-end suburb of Toronto.

The DNA sat on a lab shelf for more than two years before it was tested. Had the tests been done earlier, the DNA would have identified Bernardo as the "Scarborough rapist" and resulted in a jail sentence.

Instead, the delay likely resulted in the rapes and slayings of schoolgirls Leslie Mahaffy and Kristen French, as well as Tammy Homolka, the sister of Bernardo's wife at the time.

Debbie Mahaffy, Leslie's mother, praised the new system Thursday and thanked the police for their efforts.

"The most important thing for victims... is to know it'll possibly never happen again and all is being done so it won't happen again."

Despite still being tested, the system has already proven its effectiveness during work on 19 murder cases and 480 sexual assault cases, some leading to arrests and convictions.

The PowerCase software was also used during the E. coli outbreak in Walkerton, Ont., to help investigators figure out the source of the contamination.

-- Rachel Gibson (rgibson@hotmail.com), May 18, 2001