Ransomare attack doesn’t stop the cops | News

TRAVERSE CITY — Cybercrime may have hit Grand Traverse County Wednesday, but it didn’t stop cops from doing their jobs.

A ransomware attack on Wednesday morning shut down the county’s main information network, affecting various organizations and agencies, including the county sheriff’s office.

Without a computer connection in their patrol cars, they sometimes had to resort to pen and paper, take notes by hand and even use forms that hadn’t been used in years.

MP Brent Miller said their work continues regardless.

“We’re going to continue to do our job and serve the community,” Miller said. “The paperwork is just going to be a little different.

“We are not going to let a breach of our information systems stop us from serving our community. »

During traffic stops, Miller said he had to let civilians know he couldn’t get information like he usually would.

“We can’t verify their license or registration,” he said. “In some cases we have to be sure that they actually have it or that it’s not suspended… Usually I’ll do the report in five minutes.”

Describing a recent stop Thursday afternoon, Miller said he had to accept every possible ID from the driver. He will need to follow up once the systems are working again.

“I will take down their information and contact them again once everything is back to normal,” he said. “I’ll check (their) driving status and insurance and then, if everything comes back clean, I’ll file the accident report…And if not, we’ll sort things out later.”

MPs need to trust what they can get, he said. “There is no way to verify at this time, so we are acting in good faith. But I’ll still use my work phone to capture video of the damage, with timestamps, so I don’t forget anything and can report back later.

Another aspect of highway patrol is tracking their proximity to other first responders.

“It’s pretty dangerous with what’s going on,” Miller said, emphasizing that it’s important to know where his fellow deputies are at all times. “Here it’s about safety, making sure everyone goes home at the end of the day. »

Deputies on patrol must also remain in constant communication with dispatch. “Every 20 to 30 minutes we check in to make sure we’re still okay, update them with a new location and things like that.”

“I write things down so that if other officers need help, I don’t have to waste time (with dispatch) figuring out where they are…I can just go there and help them .”

To communicate with each other, Miller said, officers use radios as well as mobile devices. “I have three cell phones with me,” he said, “so they can reach me if they need to.” The only thing we’re missing is our chat system, or the map where we can see where the other MPs are.”

Miller created his own Microsoft Excel spreadsheet to track his calls while on patrol, including the nature of the call, its location and the time of each call.

“I don’t see what calls I’m going to answer, that’s why I created this spreadsheet,” he said. “It gives me a general idea of ​​what the call is, when I arrived and what I’m doing. The only way for me to receive updates is on a pay-as-you-go basis.

He anticipates having to transfer this data later, when their systems are backed up.

To give an example of the challenges they currently face, the dispatcher will send them to the scene of an accident, but without proper GPS they cannot pinpoint the exact location of the call. “I don’t know where they got to, so now I have to ask the dispatcher where they are.” I was given the intersection. Before, I could just look at the map without interrupting radio traffic.

Another challenge lies in the public’s ability to contact essential services and elected officials by telephone. To overcome this problem, they have posted interim telephone and email contacts on the front page of the county’s website, located at www.gtcountymi.gov.

Some veteran or retired police officers – who would have worked without these devices decades ago – likely expect today’s officers to simply be able to work without these technological conveniences.

But Miller pointed out that not all deputies were trained that way. “I can understand where they’re coming from, but they’re not the ones putting on the vest now,” he said. “We were never taught the old-fashioned way. But we are here now, to make it happen.

“It’s a huge setback,” he said, “but we’re going to continue to show up and provide service with a smile.”