{"id":914172,"date":"2026-09-29T14:46:09","date_gmt":"2026-09-29T14:46:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/914172\/"},"modified":"2026-09-29T14:46:09","modified_gmt":"2026-09-29T14:46:09","slug":"ottawa-police-considering-changes-to-prevent-unauthorized-database-searches","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/914172\/","title":{"rendered":"Ottawa police considering changes to prevent unauthorized database searches"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.cbc.ca\/a\/assets\/texttospeech.svg\" alt=\"Text to Speech Icon\" width=\"44\" height=\"44\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Listen to this article<\/p>\n<p>Estimated 2 minutes<\/p>\n<p>The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology. Mispronunciations can occur. We are working with our partners to continually review and improve the results.<\/p>\n<p>Ottawa police say they are looking for new ways to monitor and prevent non-work-related internal database searches after some officers were sanctioned for accessing confidential information for personal reasons.<\/p>\n<p>The request for information came after reports of officers\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbc.ca\/news\/canada\/ottawa\/ottawa-police-constable-demoted-9.7177298\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">searching databases for information<\/a>\u00a0about\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbc.ca\/news\/canada\/ottawa\/ottawa-police-officer-accused-of-unauthorized-database-searches-into-women-colleagues-9.7181538\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">women they&#8217;re attracted to.<\/a> One officer was demoted for 18 months.<\/p>\n<p>The current police system is not designed to automatically flag misuse from authorized users, according to a report from Chief Eric Stubbs tabled at a police oversight board meeting on Monday.<\/p>\n<p>Instead, audits have &#8220;primarily been complaint-driven, investigation-driven, or conducted through specific compliance programs.&#8221; <\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Most of the control mechanisms currently available to flag irregular access patterns and inappropriate access to information by members are largely reactive in nature,&#8221; said the report, which came in response to four board questions. <\/p>\n<p>It goes on to say that going forward, internal audits will give a more regular and proactive review of system access.  <\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We expect there to be improvements,&#8221; board vice-chair Coun. Marty Carr said following Monday&#8217;s meeting. <\/p>\n<p>&#8220;At the heart of it, public trust is what&#8217;s important,&#8221; she added. <\/p>\n<p>The report said Ottawa police are &#8220;developing or modernizing&#8221; a number of policies and that members have been given &#8220;explicit direction&#8221; about proper database use. They are also looking at a range of technology, including artificial intelligence.<\/p>\n<p>Stubbs said he is awaiting recommendations from Ontario\u2019s police oversight agency before implementing additional measures.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Listen to this article Estimated 2 minutes The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology.&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":914173,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194295],"tags":[49,48,20739],"class_list":["post-914172","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ottawa","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-ottawa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/914172","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=914172"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/914172\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/914173"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=914172"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=914172"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=914172"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}