Confidential police files found in alley
SEATTLE -- A concerned citizen gave KOMO 4 Problem Solvers a set of explosive documents that belongs to the Seattle Police Department. They're highly confidential, internal documents that should have been kept under lock and key. But somehow the sensitive documents were left in a public walkway where anyone could have found them.
When the KOMO began investigating the documents, we couldn't believe what we were seeing. In the files is information on suicidal cops, strategic staffing for major events, sexual harassment investigations -- information that in the wrong hands could be dangerous.
When the Seahawks took their game to the Super Bowl in Detroit, Seattle police also had a game plan here at home in case thousands of cheering fans turned into a rioting mob. And the department's plan for police teams, plainclothes officers, staging areas and when and how to use gas masks is all right there inside those files. It's a road map for how Seattle police plan for any major event that could spiral out of control.
That, and even more sensitive information is inside the files. Imagine if a criminal or a terrorist got a hold of them. Fortunately, Seattle resident Diane Young was the one who found them.
"I mean it's just not right," Young said of the documents being left in the open, "it's just not right!"
Young knew right away she'd found something potentially very dangerous.
Every day she and her dog Lucky walk miles on Capitol Hill. In September, Young made the discovery that rattled her. She found the documents on the ground down a narrow maintenance alley.
She says the files looked odd, as they were neatly stacked near a dumpster. And then she looked inside. "It had badge numbers, case numbers, original signatures," Young said.
Inside were recent case files of grievances filed by Seattle officers. They detail intensely personal information: lists of officers with medical exemptions, payroll records, the anguish of a suicidal cop leading fellow officers on a chase, and drunk cops behind the wheel. The files contained the names of more than 125 different officers and sergeants connected to various investigations.
And it was all left in an alley for anyone to find. Young's reaction? "I was appalled," she said. And the Seattle woman didn't want this security breach to be covered up. So she gave the files to us.
"I just don't feel comfortable that the police wouldn't have hidden this information," Young said, "even from the people in the files."
Young believes the public needs to know that the Seattle Police Department can't protect its own confidential files. "I think something from the police department is shockingly important to know," she said.
We spent more than a week trying to get Seattle Police Chief Gil Kerlikowske to look at the files, stressing how sensitive they are. He refused - even off the record - to talk to us about the files.
So we went to the apparent source of the documents: the Seattle Police Department's attorney who handles employee grievances, Mark McCarty.
McCarty admits they are his files. At first he was reluctant to talk to us, but eventually agreed to an interview.
When asked how the files ended up in the alley, McCarty answered, "I don't know what happened."
In spite of having no explanation for how the files came to be in that Capitol Hill alley, McCarty did take responsibility for the situation.
"The files you've got are my responsibility, I took them home to work on them, somehow they got lost," he said. "My house has not been broken into, my car has not been broken into but somehow I lost control of those - it's my responsibility."
I went over the basics of each of the files with McCarty and then asked him about their sensitivity. "I consider some of it to be sensitive, I haven't seen all the information you have and I understand that you consider it very sensitive," he said. "Some of it is. Some of it isn't."
After talking with McCarty, we again notified Chief Kerlikowske's office that we had these files and offered to let him look at them. We want answers about how this could have happened and who will pay for breaching the trust of the officers involved. Again, the Chief and the police department refused to talk to us or look at the documents.
And the question remains, how could the department let such sensitive information get out?
"It was stuff that should not have been seen by anybody," Young said.
KOMO 4 Problem Solvers returned the original files to the Seattle Police Department more than 24 hours ago. We've tried for nearly two weeks to speak with Chief Kerlikowske and contacted his office several times Thursday alone for a response.
At 7:30 Thursday evening, the Department sent a brief statement to KOMO stating, in part, that they have launched an investigation and that "we take this matter seriously and will work to the best of our ability to ensure that the unauthorized receipt, disclosure, and retention of Department records is prevented in the future."
We will continue to press the Chief for answers. We will also seek responses to the police department's oversight from several different agencies.