KAWARTHA LAKES-The City of Kawartha Lakes Police Service (KLPS)has responded to the Information and Privacy Commissioner and other groups who had concerns about its “extremely high” level of access to the COVID-19 testing database.
Access to the portal was authorized by the Ontario government as part of its plan to limit the spread of Coronavirus and enhance the safety of police and fire personnel who have continued to provide emergency services throughout the pandemic.
Police say the do not believe staff used their access inappropriately.
“We do not believe there was any unauthorized or inappropriate use of the portal.” said KLPS.
Police services across Ontario accessed the coronavirus database 95,000 times in a matter of months according to civil rights groups. Over 40% of these searches were conducted by two police services: Thunder Bay Police Service and Durham Region Police Service. Thunder Bay Police Service in particular accessed the personal health information in the database over 14,800 times – a rate of access that is ten times higher than the provincial average – even though the area has reported only 100 positive cases since the outset of the pandemic according to the groups.
However on a per capita basis the Kawartha Lakes Police Service was second in terms of access. Officers in the Lindsay area accessed the database 1015 times or 3.8 times per 100 people. Thunder Bay Police had the highest per capita at 12.5 times per 100 people. By comparison the OPP accessed the information 3692 times and Peterborough Police just 22 times.
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The City responded to the concerns of the Aboriginal Legal Services, Black Legal Action Centre, The Civil Liberties Association, The HIV and Aids Legal clinic and the Privacy Commissioner on Monday.
 To review the letter to the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario in its entirety visit KLPS website at www.kawarthalakespolice.com.
