Kingston Police Services Board taking local IT to court over alleged unusable technology

The Kingston Police Services Board is suing local IT company Connex and its CEO, David Van Remortel, alleging they recommended an expensive technology overhaul that did not meet their needs.

The statement of claim says the board spent more than $1 million on a Scale Computing platform and related software, but experienced installation delays, compatibility problems, unreliable backups and security concerns, including difficulty retrieving functional backups during a cyberattack in 2024.

The board alleges negligence, professional negligence, negligent misrepresentation, and breach of contract and is seeking $3 million in damages, $1 million in punitive damages, plus other costs and interest.

The claim dates back to 2022 when the police services board was looking to update their IT infrastructure.

After consulting with Connex and hearing about their expertise, the board entered an agreement with the company. Although in order to install their new IT technology, the board said they were advised to completely overhaul the current system.

By May of 2023 the board had received all seven servers from Connex.

According to Kingston Police Services Board, that’s when they entered into an array of issues during installation. Not only did they express that they experienced several delays and technical issues, but they also noted that they received no assistance from Van Remortel or Connex when requested.

The board claims the Scale Computing platform completely mismatched the board’s needs, such that they have been “unable to make use of them to any significant degree”.

In addition, the board claims the software was unreliable, and left critical backup and security problems, including during a cyberattack in 2024, “which presented an acute complication in responding to the attack”.

The KPSB said that while all of the critical issues were reported to Van Remortel and Connex, both assured KPSB that it was working to fix the critical issues; but ultimately were unable to do so.

The allegations have not been proven in court.

The Whig reached out to both KPSB and Van ReMortel. KPSB had no comment, while Van ReMortel did not respond by deadline.