Minnesota State Patrol Major Joseph Dwyer testified recently that he and a 'vast majority of the agency' deleted their communications following the widespread protests last summer
A Minnesota State Patrol officer has admitted in a recent court hearing that he and many of his fellow officers deleted text message exchanges immediately following the widespread protests against police brutality last summer.
During a hearing to determine whether the State Patrol and Minneapolis police officers used excessive force against journalists in an effort to silence them, State Patrol Major Joseph Dwyer said he and a 'vast majority of the agency' deleted their communications after the riots.
He claimed they thought they were following routine procedures in doing so, according to a transcript published to the federal court docket Friday night.
But attorneys for the American Civil Liberties Union, representing a group of journalists who were attacked by police officers in the protests, claim the file destruction was a concerted effort that 'makes it nearly impossible to track the State Patrol's behavior.
'The purge was neither accidental, automated nor routine,' the attorneys wrote in a motion that asks a federal judge to order the State Patrol cease its attacks on journalists.
'The purge did not happen because of a file destruction or retention policy,' they continued in the court documents, obtained by the Minneapolis Star-Tribune. 'No one reviewed the purged communications before they were deleted to determine whether the materials were relevant to this litigation.'
Dwyer said they were not instructed to delete their communications, but claimed it is a standard practice. State Patrol officers are pictured on the fourth day of protests last year
Dwyer said it is up to each individual officer to decide when they want to delete their records
Dwyer has previously said that the state troopers were not acting on orders to delete their messages, but claimed it is 'standard practice' to do so.
He said it is up to each officer to decide when they want to delete their records, and it is a 'recommended practice' to delete their texts after a major event.
But Don Gemberling, a spokesman for the nonprofit Minnesota Coalition on Government Information, told the Star-Tribune the State Patrol is actually required to make and keep records of all their official activity - including text messages and emails - under Minnesota state law.
He said troopers are only allowed to delete information under a schedule approved by a state records retention panel.
Gemberling also noted Dwyer's apparent admission 'doesn't strike me as being consistent with what the statute is trying to accomplish, which is to make sure there's a record of why government does what it does.'
'What they've done raises a lot of questions,' he told the newspaper.
State Patrol spokesman Brue Gordon said the officers follow all state and agency data retention requirements. He would not comment, though, on pending litigation.
