PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. — A network outage across St. Lucie County is preventing law enforcement from processing public records, and it is causing a backlog of agency reports.
WPTV reported in October about a network outage that affected St. Lucie County's Board of Commissioners system.
"The St. Lucie County Board of County Commissioners' main network has been offline since Friday, Oct. 27 due to network issues. Crews are working to resolve and restore the issue as quickly as possible," the county said in an Oct. 30 news release.
The St. Lucie County tax collector later blamed the recent shutdown of the computer system on a ransomware attack.
Region St Lucie County
Ransomware responsible for shuttering tax collector's computer system
Now, WPTV has learned that both the Port St. Lucie and Fort Pierce police departments, along with the St. Lucie County Sheriff's Office, are still in the dark, and at least one family can't file an insurance claim because of it.
"It's extremely frustrating," Susan Frisby said.
Frisby's 81-year-old mother, Lorraine Gallerini, and her 103-year-old stepfather, Bruno Gallerini, live in Port St. Lucie.
Frisby, who lives in Georgia, told WPTV her parent's car was vandalized on Oct. 31. She said they called Port St. Lucie police, and said officers came out, took down a report and towed the car, which was undriveable.
She said when she called for the police report to file an insurance claim, she was told getting it wouldn't be possible for a while.
"It was, 'Nope, sorry our system is down,'" Frisby said. "I've called repeatedly, this has just been going on since literally Nov. 1, calling every day."
Frisby said now her elderly parents have no car, and Susan has no way to help them get around town to visit the grocery store or go to doctor's appointments.
"Luckily, she has friends that kind of stepped up and helped bring her to the grocery store and do all those things she did herself, but it's just an added stressor that's unnecessary, and I just don't see an end in sight," Frisby said.
Port St. Lucie police said it's just as frustrating for them but said their hands are tied.
Police told WPTV that St. Lucie County's network was hacked in October, and when that happened, the city had to cut itself off from the county's network to prevent its records from being compromised.
While the County's BOCC system is back up and running, the city's records system still isn't, preventing them from processing public records.
Fort Pierce police and the St. Lucie County Sheriff's Office said they also can't process any public records — from traffic crashes to incident reports.
St. Lucie County Sheriff Ken Mascara released the following statement to WPTV:
"We are making sure our system is clean of any malware. Unfortunately, this process takes time. We apologize for any inconvenience."
Fort Pierce police released the following statement:
"We have and are working diligently around any issues that might affect the public. We are still doing business as usual and staying on top of the issue. This has had zero impact on our ability to respond to calls for service. All of the public safety agencies in the county are working together to make sure there will be no impact on our ability to respond to calls."
Frisby said she just hopes she'll get the police report soon and hopes that others who may hear her story will get answers too.
"I'm sure I'm just one of many out there," Frisby said. "I just feel for anyone else out there wringing their hands going, 'I don't know what to do.'"
Port St. Lucie police said they do not expect the system to be back online for another week at least, and since the department now has a backlog of hundreds of reports, it could take several more weeks for them to process the Gallerinis' case.
The department is asking for patience and understanding from the community.