The city of Sumner issued apology letters to approximately 3,600 people, including some of the city’s own employees, who were affected by a recent security breach.

A temporary employee, serving as a court clerk for the city of Sumner, admitted to accessing municipal court files and emailing them to her own personal account.

The files contained names, addresses and birthdays of defendants and potential jurors but no financial information was compromised according to Communications Director Carmen Palmer.

It was on Dec. 16 when another employee noticed the subject had emailed large amounts of data.

The Sumner Police Department took over to determine whether there was any criminal intent involved.

The woman told police she didn’t intend to use the files for immoral or illegal purposes; she simply wanted to access them at leisure to gain better understanding of her job and the city’s system.

Forensic analysis revealed she did not open the emails and had not yet accessed the files outside of work.

“It appears we acted quickly enough to retrieve control of the information, but I still worry about people’s peace of mind,”Mayor Dave Enslow said in an email.  “It’s always the fear of crime that limits our lives more than crime itself. I’m troubled that any employee, even a temporary one, would do something, no matter how well-intended, to give our other employees and citizens cause to worry.”

The woman expressed a desire to pay the city back for mailing costs associated with the incident, according to Palmer.

She was terminated for her actions but no criminal charges have been filed.

City staff is working on additional tools to prevent a repeat of the incident from occurring.