SDLP Policing Board member Mark H Durkan said the latest in a series of PSNI data breaches is incredulous.
The police service confirmed that a fourth data breach in just over a week has occurred involving a senior police officer working in a highly sensitive area.
It is understood that a laptop and police journal left on the roof of a vehicle subsequently fell off onto a stretch of the M2 yesterday afternoon.
Foyle MLA Mr Durkan said:
“This latest incident beggars belief. The PSNI cannot just say a police laptop and notebook fell from a moving vehicle on a motorway and leave it at that. There is an urgent obligation on the PSNI to explain the full circumstances of this incident. The failure to do in the first instance is not good enough. This does not help confidence or offer reassurance at an already very difficult time.
”That a police notebook has not been fully recovered - a police officer’s personal record of contact with the public in different circumstances - is a further huge concern.
“I have separately written to the Chief Constable and am tabling a question for next week’s Board meeting in order to determine all losses of police mobiles, laptops and computers in each of the last three years, what risks arise and the actions taken.”