Police Chief Sylvie Hauth is defending police’s use of a COVID-19 database.
Multiple civil liberties groups criticized city police earlier this year for their use of the system, which included the names and addresses of people who tested positive.
All police in Ontario lost access to the database in August after complaints came forward about some forces accessing it inappropriately.
In a letter to those organizations and shared at today’s Police Board meeting, Hauth says multiple audits while the database was still open found the searches were “both authorized and appropriate.”
She says it was necessary to check the list of positive COVID-19 cases with every call for service that came in, to know if officers needed extra protective equipment when responding to the call.
