ST. LOUIS — For more than 24 hours, the region’s largest criminal justice database system was offline, making it difficult for police officers, jails and other law enforcement agencies to operate throughout the St. Louis area.
The Regional Justice Information Service, also known as REJIS, experienced a “security incident,” at about 3 p.m. Monday, and was turned off into Tuesday afternoon, said REJIS CEO Ryan Burckhardt. On Wednesday morning, a spokesman for the company confirmed that service was restored.
“We believe we’ve mitigated the damages and at this time, we are not aware that any sensitive information has been taken,” he said Tuesday.
REJIS is a private company that provides data processing services and online information systems for police and sheriffs' departments, prosecutors, courts, correctional institutions, and probation and parole agencies at the federal, state, county and local levels. It serves the City of St. Louis, 92 municipalities in St. Louis County, other communities in three adjacent Missouri counties and four counties in Illinois, according to the Department of Justice's website.
The Missouri Department of Transportation also uses the system, which means the organization's mobile ticketing program and the law enforcement traffic system, which manages crash reports, as well as citation, warning, and complaint data, are currently offline, according to an internal document obtained by 5 On Your Side.
Burckhardt said police departments and other REJIS clients, including corrections and other law enforcement agencies, have differing levels of service through REJIS.
So the impact on the agency depends on the level of service.
Most police departments use the system to check on whether a person they’ve encountered has any outstanding warrants for their arrest or for a person’s criminal history. Some agencies also use it to enter people as “wanted” by police for questioning, so if an officer stops someone they’re looking for in another area, officers there can arrest them.
St. Louis County Police Department spokesman Officer Adrian Washington directed 5 On Your Side’s questions to REJIS.
In St. Louis, internal emails obtained by 5 On Your Side show the police department’s ability to book prisoners following arrests has been impacted, and self-initiated activity is at a standstill.
A juvenile escaped from the Hogan Street Youth Center at about 10:26 a.m. Tuesday and could not be entered into the system as wanted. That suspect was a 16-year-old who was being detained on first-degree robbery and resisting arrest charges.
The teen broke out a second-floor window, jumped out and ran, according to sources familiar with the investigation.
In Jefferson County, Sheriff David Marshak says the outage has had a “significant impact,” on his department’s jail operations.
“We are integrated with information from intelligence to missing wanted persons to basic services and it has negatively impacted our entire jail operations,” he said. “We can’t confirm warrants.”
Marshak said he’s been in contact with leaders at REJIS, and is “confident” the issue will be resolved soon.
“They’re going through steps to make sure we’re not adversely impacted as much in the future and I feel good about where we are heading,” he said.
REJIS is also connected to computers operated by the Missouri Department of Revenue, the Missouri Uniform Law Enforcement System, the FBI National Crime Information Center and the National Law Enforcement Telecommunications System, according to the DOJ's website.
The agency's online services include information on stolen, wanted or towed vehicles; adult arrests; field interview reports; wanted or missing persons; local criminal history; municipal police management; business file; personnel; National Crime Information Center inquiries; the Juvenile Uniform Referral and Information System; the REJIS Corrections System; the Total Court Information System; and municipal court systems, according to the website.
