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records maintained include: crime reports and supplements, accident reports, <br />investigative reports, arrest records, and much more. The maintenance and release <br />of original and official police records is strictly governed by law. There are strict <br />requirements as to what can be released, under what circumstances, and to whom. <br />Yet, department policy and practice has been that any officer could physically <br />retrieve any original file or record and take it from the records office. As noted later <br />in this report, this issue surfaced as a serious problem when the department <br />conducted the background on police applicant who was found to have committed a <br />burglary years earlier. There was no known record of any such crime until years <br />later when the officer was under investigation for innumerable criminal acts. The <br />crime and arrest reports mysteriously reappeared. They obviously had been taken, <br />originals in their entirety, from the records office.5 <br /> <br /> Advisory No. 9: Although this issue of records security was addressed when <br /> it came to the attention of the chief of police, it is essential to stress that access <br /> to records retention areas must be limited to authorized personnel and that <br /> original records cannot be permitted to leave the secure records area. Under <br /> enumerated circumstances, copies may be made and released. <br /> <br />Leadership <br /> <br />There are three captains and one civilian manager in command of the four <br />departmental divisions: patrol, investigations, operations support, and tectmical <br />services (see earlier diagram). The captains and the manager all answer directly to <br />the police chief, as does the IA sergeant on internal investigative matters. This is a <br />fiat design that affords less opportunity to filter information. Four of the <br />department's six lieutenants are assigned to patrol as watch commanders. One <br /> <br />s This issue needs to be clarified. If there was a significant time period between first and second background <br />investigatinns, the records could have been stored in archives. It is a common practice to archive records after <br />three years. Some departments still continue to store records on micro-fiche, however, this practice is becoming <br />oubdated. More progressive departments digitize and store records on a master server. <br /> <br /> 62 <br /> <br /> <br />