State Allows Text Records from 88K Government Phones to be Wiped Daily
“Those public records are literally disappearing as we speak… They’re just dumping the data”
Mikael Thalen
Prison Planet.com
April 12, 2015
The state of Washington is failing to store backups of text messages from 88,000 government phones that are being wiped on a daily basis, a direct violation of state records retention laws.
The shocking discovery began last November after Fife City Attorney Loren Combs requested four years worth of text messages from a former city manager.
According to The News Tribune’s Sean Robinson, who broke the story Saturday, Combs was told to get a subpoena by Verizon, one of several phone providers to the state, after the city deferred his request to the telecom.
“I was dumbfounded in this case,” Combs told The Tribune. “First that they wouldn’t give it to us without having to file a lawsuit to get our own records.”
Shortly after filing suit, Combs received what appeared to be a puzzling response from Verizon.
“The records that you requested no longer exist because they are beyond Verizon’s period of retention,” Verizon stated. “Text message content is maintained for 3-5 days from the date of transmission/receipt and requires a court order. There are no text message content available for your requested time frame.”
The Rest…HERE
