National Police Services programs and services

The RCMP is the steward of the collection of programs known as the National Police Services (NPS). NPS provides programs and services to police agencies and criminal justice officials in Canada to support the detection, deterrence, investigation and prosecution of crime and the administration of Canada's law enforcement and criminal justice communities.

This mandate traces back to the formation of the modern NPS in 1966, when Attorneys General recognized that the creation of a centrally administered system of services could improve communication and the coordination of policing among provincial, territorial and municipal jurisdictions. As a result, some of the existing policing services, such as fingerprint identification and criminal records, were strengthened and other services, notably Criminal Intelligence Service Canada (1970), Canadian Police Information Centre (1972), and the Canadian Police College (1976), were created.

More programs and services were added to NPS' suite since its creation. Many of these changes were driven by the evolution of technology and investigative techniques to ensure that investigators and prosecutors had the tools required to arrest and convict criminals. NPS now consists of a broad range of informational, technical and scientific investigative support programs and systems.

The majority of NPS clients are external to the RCMP. In many instances, the RCMP is the sole provider of these specialized police support services in Canada. NPS currently includes:

• Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre (CAFC)
• Canadian Criminal Real Time Identification Services (CCRTIS)
• Canadian Firearms Program (CFP)
• Canadian Police College (CPC)
• Canadian Police Information Centre (CPIC)
• Criminal Intelligence Service Canada (CISC)
• National Cybercrime Coordination Unit (NC3)
• National DNA Data Bank (NDDB)
• National Forensic Laboratory Services (NFLS)
• National Sex Offender Registry (NSOR)
• Violent Crime Linkage Analysis System (ViCLAS)

A number of advisory bodies assist NPS programs by offering strategic and tactical advice and guidance, such as the Canadian Police College Advisory Board, the National Police Services Cybercrime Committee, the National Police Information Services Advisory Board and the National DNA Data Bank Advisory Committee report to the National Police Services National Advisory Committee on the challenges, operations, sustainability and evolution of existing or new services within the NPS.