Security breach leads to firing, resignation of 5 Panama City Police Department employees

Nathan Cobb, Panama City News Herald
·2 min read

PANAMA CITY − A security breach led to the firing or resignation of five Panama City Police Department employees.

In an emailed statement, Chief Mark Smith said he learned on March 18 that an internal affairs investigation folder was found in an internal agency directory, where it could be read by unauthorized employees.

This led to the firing of two officers, one dispatcher and an information technologies employee. Another information technologies employee also resigned.

"Upon discovering this information, I asked my information technologies employees how this happened," Smith wrote. "They were unable to provide a reasonable explanation."

With the help of the Bay County Sheriff's Office, an audit of the Panama City Police Department's IT section was performed.

"The Bay County Sheriff's Office was able to provide information that the IT section had inappropriately disabled all active directories and had additionally created a shortcut to access all internal affairs investigations folders," Smith wrote. "Thankfully, our system tracks who accessed what and for how long."

The employees identified were then asked to explain themselves. Three provided memos, which Smith said were inconsistent with the audit.

"All three employees were terminated for a lack of honesty in their memos," Smith wrote. "In addition, the members of the Panama City Police Department IT were terminated or resigned following ineffective handling of the information technology section."

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The police department has since hired new IT employees. Smith said there are no indicators that the IT breach went outside the agency. He also said there is no evidence that the fired employees gave false information in any criminal investigation or arrest.

"The officers of the Panama City Police Department and I work diligently to provide integrity and superior performance to the citizens and visitors we serve," Smith wrote. "The information on this issue was provided internally by an employee, immediately followed up on and swiftly addressed to correct the problem and separate the violating employees."

This article originally appeared on The News Herald: Panama City Police Department fires employees over security breach