Key databases used by law enforcement are still down nearly two weeks after Nevada was hit by a ransomware attack, preventing police from seeing information about restraining orders and registered sex offenders and raising concerns that officers are unable to adequately protect survivors of domestic violence. In an email, a spokesperson for the governor’s office confirmed that these services were “being worked on.”  

According to a source working for the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department (LVMPD), who asked for anonymity out of fear of being fired, law enforcement access to databases such as the Dangerous Offender Notification System, sex offender registration, and protection orders are still not up and running. 

According to a spokesperson for the governor, out-of-state Criminal History Record Information, out-of-state vehicle registration and Interpol recently came back online, though they were down as of Tuesday, according to the LVMPD employee.

And documents obtained by The Nevada Independent show that 911 dispatchers didn’t have access to these law enforcement databases until Aug. 28, days after the attack, though the 911 line was still working. 

As of Friday morning, navigating to the Nevada Sex Offender Registry website turned up a “this site can’t be reached” page. Several of the other databases cited by the source are accessible only by law enforcement and other eligible parties, but not the general public, making it difficult to independently verify their functionality.

Several key databases only became available to emergency personnel four days after the cyberattack, the source said. Those included the Nevada Criminal Justice Information System, which maintains records of criminal histories and warrants; databases showing who has a concealed carry weapon permit; in-state Department of Motor Vehicles information and access to the National Crime Information Center, a criminal justice information-sharing network that includes the FBI and virtually every other law enforcement agency in the country. 

According to a law enforcement employee, this has made certain tasks more difficult. More than anything, the employee was concerned about law enforcement personnel’s ability to continue to effectively operate in the field without access to protection order information or sex offender registries. 

“If we come in contact with somebody and they say, ‘I have a protection order,’ we can't really verify that,” the employee said. “That limits our ability.” 

Liz Ortenburger, CEO of Safe Nest, a nonprofit organization that assists women and families escaping domestic violence, said her staff has reported that law enforcement officers had trouble enforcing several temporary restraining orders, also known as temporary protection orders or TPOs, this past week. A 2010 study of California restraining orders estimated that 84 percent to 92 percent were related to domestic violence.   

“If you can’t look it up, you can’t necessarily enforce it,” Ortenburger said. “That's a huge deal because the layer of safety that a survivor feels when they have a TPO, when they're following all the processes, are not available to them right now.” 

Ortenburger also pointed to outages with the Nevada S.A.V.E. Notifications program, which notifies victims of when their abuser moves through the criminal justice system. Without access to the program, victims are unaware of when the perpetrator has been released from jail or is going to court. 

“People that are depending on the system to deliver safety are certainly at risk,” Ortenburger said. 

Spokespeople for the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department and the attorney general’s office did not respond to multiple requests for comment about the law enforcement database outages.