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Local police often not told of national security investigations, experts say

Local police often not told of national security investigations, experts say

Security experts are not surprised local police were unaware a young woman was allegedly recruited by someone in Edmonton to join ISIS.

Earlier this week, CBC News reported that an Edmonton woman is accused of radicalizing another Canadian, who left the country last year for Syria.

The young woman’s family said she was taking an online course studying the Qu’ran taught by the alleged recruiter. They believe the same person may have paid for her flight to Syria.

Edmonton police said they were told about the case by the RCMP shortly before the story was published.

Christian Leuprecht, associate dean at the Royal Military College of Canada, said national security investigations are under the jurisdiction of the RCMP, and local police are not typically told about them.

He said they only get involved by request, or if they begin an investigation based on their own intelligence.

“[They] would only be able to share with police if there were sufficient grounds to launch a national security investigation,” he said.

“National security is the purview of the RCMP, which may call on local police to assist with investigations as necessary.”

Leuprecht said the RCMP has Integrated National Security Enforcement Teams (INSET), which are comprised of a variety of agencies including local police forces.

MacEwan University politics professor Jean Christophe Boucher said police agencies do communicate with the RCMP and intelligence organizations, but they are limited in what information can be shared.

“There's still laws applying to sharing private information and, of course, here we're dealing with files and responsibilities that usually fall to federal agencies and not necessarily to local police.”

Last year, Knecht said he had assigned more officers to investigate an increasing number of possible terrorism threats in the city.