A huge foul-up at the Dallas Police Department is just now surfacing as the top brass is just now fessing up to a gigantic loss of data.
In a memo to judges, bar associations, and attorneys statewide, Dallas County District Attorney John Creuzot says his office was notified a couple of days ago that someone at the Dallas Police Department messed up and deleted 22 terabytes of case data.
“On August 6, 2021, the Dallas Police Department (DPD) and City of Dallas Information and Technology Services Department (ITS) informed the administration of this Office that in April 2021, the City discovered that multiple Terabytes of DPD data had been deleted during a data migration of a DPD network drive,” Creuzot wrote in his memo. He said it took three days to get a response. “We learned that 22 Terabytes of DPD data were deleted over the course of a few days (March 31, 2021 – April 5, 2021).
Approximately 14 terabytes of data were recovered, but approximately 8 terabytes remain missing and are believed to be unrecoverable.”
Creuzot says he is instructing his staff to verify that all evidence from detectives was shared with his office before cases are resolved.
But the disclosure is already sending reverberations through the legal community.
“If some of that data is lost that just harms our clients, and reduces them being able to have a fair trial at that point,” Said Amanda Branan, President of the Dallas Criminal Defense Lawyers Association.
She says there could be legal implication under the Brady rule, a case out of Maryland that set a new standard that requires prosecutors to disclose materially exculpatory evidence in the government's possession to the defense.
“Brady is a big concern for us. If there’s Brady information and some of that data is lost that just harms our clients and reduces them being able to have a fair trial.“
Dallas police responded to an e-mail seeking comment from Chief Eddie Garcia by saying “Chief Garcia will not be provided a statement.
Please refer to the City Hall PIO for any further details of the incident.”
The mayor’s office referred a phone call to the city public information office. The public information office said our inquiry “has been forwarded to the appropriate department for a response.”
That response has not been provided.
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