Corporations shred documents all the time. It saves space and prevents trash sifters from finding private information. Those are the legitimate reasons.
Sometimes, however, companies do so for illicit reasons.
Former big five accounting firm Arthur Andersen shredded documents related to its client Enron to eliminate incriminating evidence of fraud.
Recently, the city admitted it destroyed confidential command files from 2001 and 2002 that were evidence in a civil rights lawsuit against the Baltimore City Police Department.
City solicitor Ralph Tyler told The Examiner?s Stephen Janis, “The officers that destroyed the documents were not aware that they were relevant to the case.”
Huh?
The city has known since January 2006 that it had to preserve evidence in the suit, which claims that black officers faced retaliation for filing discrimination complaints.
Destroying the documents may not have been malicious.
But at the very least, it shows gross negligence on the part of the police department.
And, at least, it certainly raises the question of the competence of the record-keepers.
Even if it were “inadvertent,” its not as if no one knew about the case.
Tyler said the city had already turned over 100,000 documents related to it.
He also said it would be possible to “reconstruct the vast majority of what has been destroyed.”
But why should plaintiffs believe him? Destroying evidence works to the city?s favor.
We eagerly await the city?s affidavit explaining why the documents were eliminated.
This looks like a significant breach of trust at a time when city officers face numerous legal challenges, including sexual misconduct and identity theft ? and at a time when the police department faces questions over whether quotas drive its arrest policy.
Police Commissioner Leonard Hamm must hold a public forum to discuss ethical lapses in the department and how they are being addressed. Soon. C?mon, Chief Hamm!
If citizens are to trust the police, they need its management to demonstrate its commitment to integrity at all levels.
