We still have to meet the burden of proof. We work with the crown prosecutor. With those of the age of majority, we always provide what we call the “plumitif”, the record of criminal offences. We can tell the prosecutor that this is the fourth time that an individual has been arrested for the same offence; the individual is a re-offender. We would do the same thing for young people. We are talking about repeated offences. We are not talking about exceptional cases.
Police officers often notice that we are always arresting the same people in the same places in the same neighbourhoods. The same names come up time and time again. With the registry, we can tell the prosecutor that this is the fourth time that the person has been arrested for such and such an offence, and that he is a re-offender in such and such a place. A young person may re-offend out of town or outside the province. So it is important for police to tell the prosecutor that this is a specific repeat offence for the third, fourth, fifth or sixth time. That is why having records available is important, as I said, because we must meet the burden of proof.