Thunder Bay Police are still under the microscope after they ran thousands of searches for COVID-19 test results.
The Canadian Civil Liberties Association found police in Thunder Bay and Durham Region made up 40% of the 95,000 times the province-wide database was searched. It was shut down in late August over privacy concerns.
Thunder Bay Police, in particular, accessed the database over 14,800 times, a rate ten times higher than the provincial average.
Abby Deshman is the Director of the Association’s Criminal Justice program, and claims some forces broke the law with those searches. She says local police didn’t access the database illegally, but she isn’t letting them of the hook.
“I still do have outstanding questions and concerns about why Thunder Bay police thought that this was a tool that was so useful that they searched it many, many thousands of times,” Deshman says.
Police claim they needed the information when protective equipment was scarce, so they could decide whether officers responding to a 911 call needed to wear masks or other protection. Deshman claims the database was known to be inaccurate and outdated and wouldn’t have been much help.
“I do hope for a bit more follow-up from the Thunder Bay Police Board in particular, for them to register on whether it made any sense for Thunder Bay Police to use this database at all, given its significant failings,” she adds.
She says Thunder Bay residents can be assured that the force didn’t save any of the information officers learned from the health records system.
