PSNI personnel not told of theft for a month
Some 200 police officers and staff were not informed of the theft of a laptop, radio and documents containing their names for almost a month, the Police Service of Northern Ireland has confirmed.
The thefts from a car parked in Newtownabbey on July 6 emerged last week after news that the names of 10,000 officers and staff had been published online for a number of hours on Tuesday.
On Saturday, Assistant Chief Constable Chris Todd said officers believe the laptop and radio were deactivated "shortly afterwards".
"We are confident no data has been lost from these devices and they are of no use to any third party," he said.
"Our Information Security Unit were informed on July 27.
"As there was a delay, our Information Security Unit had to conduct their own inquiries to be clear on what accurate information could be conveyed to the Information Commissioner's Office who were then informed on July 31.
"The precise nature of the missing data had to be confirmed before we could inform our officers and staff on August 4. We have worked with our data protection officer and sought legal advice and guidance to ensure the information we provided to our employees was accurate."