Sault Ste. Marie Police Service says all cameras at the station have not recorded since May 2, after the cyber attack destroyed the ability to record footage from security cameras for eight months
Defense attorney Naomi Sayers said it was “absolutely insane” that security cameras had not recorded anything on Sault Ste. Marie Police Headquarters for the past eight months.
Sayers learned of the security cameras after sending an email to police, asking not to discard footage of an alleged interaction she had with a police officer last month after 30 days under police policy.
Initially, the lawyer requested the footage from the camera through a request for freedom of information, which she submitted to Sault Ste. Marie Police Service in late April.
“Although our policy is to keep the video for 30 days, our IT department informs me that after the cyber attack on August 26, 2021, our cameras are currently unable to record video,” said an email from a Sault Ste member. Marie Police Service, which was sent to Sayers on May 3. “Our IT department is unable to provide a time frame for when it will resume operations.”
Sayers is a Garden River First Nation lawyer who was recently rejected by the Ontario Liberal Party to be nominated as a candidate for Sault Ste. Marie is riding in the upcoming provincial elections, she told SooToday on Wednesday that she was no longer safe to visit the police station alone.
“I could never, with a clear conscience or conscientiousness, advise someone to visit a police station knowingly when there are no records. What if they show up and a cop has a bad day and takes it out to the client? What if the client has medical distress, what happens if the client gets hurt? she said.
Sault Ste. Police spokeswoman Marie Lincoln Louttit told SooToday on Thursday that all security cameras at the police station had been recording since May 2, but did not answer questions about public safety or how exactly the cyberattack compromised the camera recording feature.
“Obviously, with the effect that the cyber attack had on the service, there were a number of priority systems that needed to be restored and restored,” Lutit said.
Lisa Veso-Allen, chairwoman of the police service, declined to comment when SooToday contacted by email. The chairman of the board noted that “this is an operational matter, not the management of the board”.
Sault Ste. Police Chief Marie Hugh Stevenson told SooToday in February that the cyberattack, which resulted in the encryption of several administrative and record management systems, was allowed at “90 percent”.
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