News that top officials at Louisville Metro Police Department had used the automatic message deleting app, Signal, to erase the electronic paper trail of their communications -- and, consciously or unconsciously, to evade the open records law and public accountability -- was a sad reminder that a deeply rooted culture of secrecy and disfunction is nearly impossible to uproot.
https://www.courier-journal.com/story/news/investigations/2024/10/10/lo…
It is especially concerning when viewed in the broader scope of a law enforcement agency that has undergone rigorous scrutiny, both internal and external, to uncover the sources of that secrecy and disfunction.
https://kyopengov.org/blog/lmpd-audit-concludes-real-work-begins
https://www.courier-journal.com/story/news/politics/2023/03/08/7-main-f…
The September 2023 records management audit of Louisville Metro Police Department -- ordered by the Louisville Metro Council "on the heels of a lawsuit filed by a nonprofit police accountability group, The 490 Project, that accused the department of destroying complaints against officers in violation of the Kentucky Open Records Act" -- failed to uncover, and offer recommendations to remediate, LMPD's use of Signal to automatically delete messages exchanged by command staff.
Like the prematurely destroyed complaints against officers that must be retained for five years after an officer leaves the force -- the subject of The 490 Project's lawsuit -- messages exchanged by command staff that are central to LMPD's work, and that deal with its general operations, must be retained for two years according to state regulation.
https://kdla.ky.gov/records/recretentionschedules/Documents/Local%20Rec…
(Records Series 5123 and 6096)
https://apps.legislature.ky.gov/law/kar/titles/725/001/061/
https://kyopengov.org/blog/overdue-lmpd-records-management-internal-aud…
LMPD ignored these legal requirements and thwarted public oversight by using a communications app that automatically deleted their messages.
As reporter Josh Wood notes in "Top LMPD officers used app to automatically delete their texts, a potential crime":
"Under Kentucky law, public agency officials who willfully conceal or destroy records to bypass the open records law are guilty of a Class A misdemeanor for each violation, which is punishable by up to 12 months imprisonment.
https://apps.legislature.ky.gov/law/statutes/statute.aspx?id=19864
"A separate law makes tampering with public records, which occurs when a person knowingly destroys a public record or otherwise impairs its availability, a Class D felony punishable by between one and five years in prison."
https://apps.legislature.ky.gov/law/statutes/statute.aspx?id=19864
And the illegal practice may have continued were it not for Louisville Metro Government's past due denial of the newspaper's open records request for "all messages sent in an LMPD 'command staff group chat' mentioned in [the leaked recording of a May 22 command staff meeting] since May 17.
"The messages would have spanned a critical time for LMPD, as the department navigated its controversial, image-damaging arrest of the world’s No. 1 golfer, Scottie Scheffler, as well as a sexual misconduct scandal that ultimately unseated its chief."
Louisville Metro belatedly responded that there were no responsive records. Officials later explained that Signal “was not structured to retain messages indefinitely” during the time period" identified in the newspaper's request.
To his credit, newly appointed Chief Paul Humphrey "recognized the need for change and directed the app’s use to be restructured" to ensure that the "Signal group chat used by LMPD command staff retains messages instead of deleting them."
https://www.courier-journal.com/story/news/investigations/2024/10/10/lo…
LMPD's cannot escape it's past by reacting to inconvenient and embarrassing disclosures as they surface -- especially those that expose it to legal liability. It bears the responsibility to thoroughly vet policies in advance of their implementation.
Proactive examination, modification, and in some cases, abolition of existing LMPD policies offers the hope of a change in culture and restoration of public trust.
