Access to the dozens of state agency information systems -- including law enforcement, driver services and the Department of Human Services -- was restored late Saturday night after a power outage shut them all down.
The Georgia Bureau of Investigations confirmed that a power surge during routine maintenance caused the state system to go offline. The glitch caused some people throughout metro Atlanta and the state to face delays when they tried to bond their friends and relatives out of jail.
Local jails, as a result of the outage, were not able to access the state's criminal database. The jails were forced to take extra precaution to make sure no one with outstanding warrants was released, but some said that also kept those who should have bonded out-- locked up.
"It shouldn't be there, because that's a right to every individual that's in jail," Randall Lott, who paid a bond but couldn't get his brother out of jail for DUI charge, told Channel 2 Action News. "When you make bond you should be able to get out."
Late Saturday, Michael Clark a spokesman for the Georgia Technology Authority spokesman, the authority, which oversees the state data center, said technicians were performing routine electrical maintenance when the outage occurred.
“The power surge knocked out the main network switch,” Clark said. "As a result, state agencies experienced difficulty accessing a number of information systems. The most critical of which was the state’s criminal data base.”
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