'Blue leaks' include information about police surveillance of Black Lives Matter protests

PORTLAND (WGME) – The full extent of the massive data breach of more than 200 law enforcement and government agencies, including the Maine Information and Analysis Center, is unknown.

Massive hack of police records includes files from secretive Maine police unit

The breach occurred in Houston, Texas at a company called "Netsential," which provides web hosting services to hundreds of U.S. law enforcement and government agencies.

Maine State Police learned its data had not only been compromised, but made public as well.

This data breach comes from the Maine Information and Analysis, or “Fusion” Center.

This unit started five years after 9/11 as an effort to try to protect people from terrorism.

Maine State Police say they believe fusion center is operating lawfully

"But its mission has morphed in ways that many of the critics predicted,” Zachary Heiden of the ACLU of Maine said. “And now, they're engaged in general law enforcement activities, surveillance of protest activities, collecting and storing information about critics of government policies."

These recent so-called "blue leaks" include information about police surveillance of Black Lives Matter protests in Maine.

Peaceful Black Lives Matter protest in Lewiston

"Monitoring all sorts of Constitutionally-protected political activity including things that are quite tame," USM Criminology Professor Brendan McQuade said.

USM Criminology Professor Brendan McQuade is an outspoken critic of fusion centers.

He says he saw hundreds of breached documents online, from the Maine Fusion Center, containing sensitive information.

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"If you look, these blue leaks documents, what are you going to see? You're going to see a lot of criminal intelligence," McQuade said. “About people involved in petty property crimes, petty drug crimes. Someone in law enforcement might view this as successful criminal intelligence sharing. What I see is repeated social failures. Repeated policy failures to deal with social problems."

State police say they are working to assess the extent of the data breach, and are not yet ready to respond publicly on the matter.

"This data breach was enormous," Heiden said.

The ACLU of Maine says not only is the Maine Fusion Center collecting and storing large amounts of data on private citizens, there is also little or no oversight.

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"This fusion center, having all this information about us, really has put lives at risk," Heiden said.

This data breach of Mainers’ personal information, along with evidence that state law officers are monitoring activists and protesters, may draw even more scrutiny now for a unit already facing a legislative review and federal lawsuit.