Here’s what we know so far about deleted Dallas police evidence

Millions of police photos, videos, and other evidence files on Dallas’ online storage were deleted months ago, and many are gone forever.

The worker at the center of deleted files has been fired, several senior city officials have apologized for not disclosing information that the data was deleted earlier, and a new report outlines systemic issues that led to the situation.

An audit published Thursday found that 20.7 terabytes were deleted and some of them could potentially be recovered if original copies are found.

The city’s next move is to bring in a law firm to oversee an independent investigation into the incident. City council member Cara Mendelsohn hopes to put the recommendation for a company on the council’s October 27 agenda. The law firm chosen would hire a computer forensics company to determine what happened and how to prevent future data loss. The FBI’s Dallas office is also helping the police.

The city’s chief information officer, Bill Zielinski, did not return any news from The Dallas Morning News about the report.

Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson issued a statement Friday describing the results as “troubling and troubling”. He said he wanted a city committee dealing with investigations and ethics to be briefed on the report.

“All of this raises further questions,” he said in his statement. “We need action and responsibility.”

Here is a timeline of events since March when some of the original files were deleted during a data transfer:

March 28: A request is made to move police files in the archive storage in the cloud to a physical city server.

30.-31. March: A nine-year-old IT professional is chosen to move 35 terabytes of files, but instead begins deleting them.

April 2: The employee begins receiving messages from colleagues who discover that items are disappearing from the archive store.

April 3: The employee stops the deletion process.

April 5: The agent begins receiving requests for help from police officers who cannot find or access files. The employee tries to restore the data. He also notifies his supervisor.

April 6: The department’s deputy infrastructure director is informed of the cancellation. Chief Information Officer Bill Zielinski said he was briefed the same day and ordered an assessment and report of the incident.

7th-8th April: IT finds that 22 terabytes have been deleted. Microsoft is helping the city get more than 60% of the files, but 7.5 terabytes are still missing.

April 9: Zielinski said he had notified city treasurer Elizabeth Reich of “the potential problem” and that they were trying to assess the impact and restore the data.

April 13: Zielinski emails Reich and Deputy City Director Jon Fortune, who oversees the city’s public safety authorities, confirms files have been deleted and plans to meet with top police officers.

April 14th: Zielinski and other IT staff meet with police officers. Reich and Fortune discuss the lost files and inform City Manager TC Broadnax. The brief conversations “weren’t quite so alarming” that more people had to be notified, says Broadnax later. Broadnax said it anticipates that it will be updated as new information comes to light or the matter warrants further attention. Broadnax said he didn’t hear about it again until prosecutors asked about missing case files on Aug. 6.

14.-15. April: Reich said she called then councilor Jennifer Staubach Gates and told her that the police archive had been “deleted”. Staubach Gates served as chair of the council’s public security committee and was two months away from leaving her council seat due to tenure restrictions. Staubach Gates said she was told that an internal investigation was ongoing and that “the employee would be held accountable and removed from his position”. Staubach Gates said she expected other council members to be informed.

April 19: Police chief Eddie García sends an internal email to the police warning of data loss and asking them to check whether any files are missing.

April 29: According to Zielinski, Dallas police are opening an investigation to determine whether the deletions of files were based on criminal intent. The department later sees no apparent criminal intent but cannot definitively say whether the files were intentionally deleted.

July 6: Reich said she contacted Zielinski to inquire about the status of the disciplinary action against the employee who deleted the files. Zielinski said an in-town investigation is still ongoing.

July 30: Dallas County District Attorney John Creuzot said he was alerted by at least two prosecutors that there may be something wrong with the evidence on police records.

August 3: A chief administrator emails the police for more information on potential problems.

Aug 6: Fortune and Creuzot said police and IT staff had contacted Dallas County attorneys to discuss the situation. Broadnax said he was briefed on the meeting the same day and received an update on the lost evidence for the first time since April. Fortune said he reached out to Dallas City Attorney Chris Caso to ask if he would schedule a briefing for a closed session with the city council on Aug. 18 about the deleted files.

Aug 9: City IT responds to prosecutor’s follow-up questions about the date range and amount of evidence lost.

Aug 11: Creuzot’s office notifies defense attorneys that the city claims it has lost police evidence and is determining if cases are involved. Fortune said he personally reported it to councilor Adam McGough, the current chairman of the public safety committee, on the same day.

Aug 12: Mayor Eric Johnson sends Broadnax, McGough, Councilor Cara Mendelsohn and others a memo saying he is “blind” to the news. A Dallas County prosecutor is asking a judge to postpone the trial of Jonathan Pitts, a suspect in a 2019 murder in northwest Dallas, which was due to begin that day. The request was made to ensure that no files were missing in his case. The judge allows the application. Police said the detective confirmed on the same day that no evidence had been deleted.

August 13: Broadnax sends a memo to elected leaders stating that he and his leadership team should have retrospectively notified the prosecutor, mayor and city council earlier about the missing police evidence. His memo also outlined several changes the city would make, such as informing elected leaders of data breaches within two hours of learning about it. Two IT staff will also oversee the transport of computer data. It also introduces a 14-day waiting period before data is permanently deleted and a review is being conducted to analyze how the city stores and archives data. He also expects an audit to be completed by the end of September.

August 16: Pitts released from prison. In December he will be on trial.

August 18: Dallas City Council members are held in a closed executive meeting to be notified of potential legal and security concerns related to the deleted files.

Aug 19: Broadnax, Fortune, Reich, Zielinski and García are among the top officials questioned about data loss by elected leaders during a city council committee meeting. Council members express anger, frustration and disappointment at the lack of communication and the urgency to keep track.

Aug 27: The city fires the IT guy who deleted the files after a review of the entire Dallas data archive since 2018 found possibly 15 more terabytes of missing items. It was later found to be closer to 13 terabytes.

08/30: Reich informs city councils by email about the dismissal of the IT employee.

September 7th: García meets with Matthew J. DeSarno, special agent for the FBI office in Dallas, about the data loss.

September 10: FBI officials confirm during a council committee meeting that they are helping the police investigate the former employee and the deleted files. Council members also vote in favor of instructing the prosecutor to contact local law firms to conduct an external review of the incident.

September 30: The city’s IT department publishes a 131-page report detailing systemic problems in the department and how the city stores data. Improvements in data management practices are also recommended.

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