The Sault Ste. Marie Police Services Board isn’t in the business of disclosing what it discusses during the closed portion of its monthly meetings. But a simple search Google has revealed that highly sensitive information from the board’s caucus meetings has been publicly available online for an unknown period of time.
An anonymous SooToday reader initially pointed out the security flaw: agendas and minutes from some of the police board’s private caucus meetings have been made available online — including morsels of confidential and sensitive personal information intended to remain firmly under wraps and away from the public eye.
It is unclear how the documents were made public and it is also unclear how long they were posted, but the leak included at least a dozen leaked Police Services Board information packages containing agendas and minutes from both the open and closed portions of police board meetings between 2020 and 2022.
Those police board packages now appear to have been removed from public access after SooToday brought the issue to the attention of Sault Police.
“The Sault Ste. Marie Police Services Board has learned some of our classified documents were available online. We have done everything within our control to delete all confidential documents from our website and online,” said police board chair John Bruno in a statement emailed to SooToday Thursday. “The board is actively working to determine how these documents became publicly accessible and to ensure the information is not shared further. We will use every method at our disposal to protect the privacy of the information in these documents.”
Some of the information previously accessible to the public via a relatively unsophisticated Google search includes:
- Grievances against SSMPS made by the Sault Ste. Marie Police Association
- Criminal record checks for members of the public applying to the police board for taxi licences
- Witness statements related to an individual’s criminal record check
- Details of at least one human rights complaint against Sault Ste. Marie Police Service officers
- Legal fees incurred by the Police Services Board for legal matters involving Sault Ste. Marie Police Service officers
- SSMPS responses to complaints from the public containing names and home addresses of the complainants
- Calls for police service related to mischief, break-and-enters, motor vehicle collisions and thefts broken down by neighbourhood
The Sault Ste. Marie Police Service has said the issue is a board matter and referred questions to the board, although SooToday is aware that detectives are looking into the breach.
