Theft and vandalism spark security review of Hamilton drop box

The City of Hamilton has launched a security review of its drop box, which is temporarily unavailable because of vandalism and theft.

It said the vandalism and theft occurred at the first-floor drop box at the rear entrance of City Hall on the morning of Sunday, Oct. 22.

The City told hamilton.insauga.com today that items within the drop box were stolen and the drop box was vandalized.

The drop-box is used by residents for correspondence or service information outside of City Hall business hours. City Hall normally operates from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

“Access to the drop-box will be temporarily unavailable pending a review of the use of drop boxes and security measures,” it announced in a press release today (Oct. 26). “The City of Hamilton takes the responsibility of protecting the security of individuals and their personal information very seriously and has already started to review security processes to ensure the protection of personal information.”

The City said this incident may only affect a small number of individuals. But “out of an abundance of caution,” it’s advising anyone who may have used the drop box between 4:30 p.m. on Oct. 20 and 6 a.m. on Oct. 22 to contact the City’s corporate privacy specialist at 905-546-2424 ext. 6370.  

“Upon discovering the theft, staff contacted the Hamilton Police Service, took measures to secure the drop box and review security processes to better secure mail,” it wrote.

The City’s privacy office got in touch with the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario this morning with findings from a security review that was done on Oct. 25.