An organization of human rights organizations is involved in the use by Guelph police of a COVID-19 database, which they say has been accessed 4,057 times through the service.
Between April and July, police had access to the names, dates of birth and addresses of others who tested positive for the new coronavirus under the province’s Civil Protection and Emergency Management Act.
The Ontario government terminated police access to the database after a legal challenge filed through Aboriginal Legal Services, the Black Legal Action Center, the Canadian Civil Liberties Association and HIV
Since then, the organization has ended its legal challenge, but is involved in the garage and using it through the police.
Groups are now asking them to destroy non-public aptitude data that has already been accessed and to conduct audits so that the knowledge consulted is consistent with legal policies and requirements.
But they also raise considerations with Guelph police and have written a letter to the chairman of the Police Services Commission, Robert Carter, because of the number of times they have accessed the database.
Guelph police conducted the sixth search in the database of any other police force in Ontario and the fourth in line with capital.
“The unusually high number of times knowledge was accessed raises considerations as to whether the knowledge base has been used and whether this huge amount of non-public data is still used locally,” the letter states.
The number of searches is a source of fear given Guelph’s population of just over 130,000 and the low number of coronavirus cases to date in 251.
A Guelph police spokesman made no comment on Wednesday afternoon.
“Transparency and accountability require the public to be informed of the reasons for the unusually high number of searches conducted through the Guelph Police Service in the database,” the teams said in their next article.
The organization also asks Guelph police and others where knowledge is stored lately, who has access to it, and for what purpose.
Given the increased number of searches, the organization would like to see an audit through the Guelph Police Services Commission about who made database data requests and requests made through legal users for legal purposes.
The Guelph Police Services Board is scheduled to meet for its monthly assembly on September 17.