Network outage causes backlog for multiple St. Lucie County agencies

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.

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.”

WPTV

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…