Department leadership then set many of those communications to automatically delete.
Searchlight also found that the Governor’s Office and the state Department of Information Technology supported the systematic deletion of messages, according to emails and policy guidance obtained through an Inspection of Public Records Act request.
Legal experts warn that it is likely to impede investigations into the agency, cripple the ability of attorneys to represent children in state custody, and could violate the state Public Records Act rules on retention of documents.
CYFD use of Signal is under investigation by the office of state Attorney General Hector Balderas, after an earlier Searchlight report detailing the agency’s routine deletion of encrypted messages. House Republicans asked Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham to provide a report detailing “whether her office staff and/or cabinet level staff have been using data encryption and data dumping.”
By Ed Williams, Searchlight New Mexico |
5 hours ago
Don J. Usner/Searchlight New Mexico
Secretary Brian Blalock of the Children, Youth and Families Department in his office in Santa Fe in 2020.
The New Mexico Children, Youth and Families Department has fired two high-level employees who raised concerns about the agency’s practice of encrypting and summarily destroying records.
A Searchlight New Mexico investigation has found that over the past year, the CYFD used the secure text messaging app Signal to discuss a wide range of official business, including the state’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the care of children in state custody and concerns about private contractors. Department leadership then set many of those communications to automatically delete, rendering them forever inaccessible to attorneys, members of the public and journalists.
By Morgan Lee, Associated Press
The state Supreme Court on Friday upheld a lower court decision allowing the no-bail pretrial release of an 18-year-old with no prior criminal history who is accused of a string of residential burglaries in Albuquerque.
The ruling rebuffs public prosecutors who say risks to the community in the case linking as many as 80 nighttime burglaries in homes where people slept can t be mitigated by electronic tracking devices and supervision.
Justice Michael Vigil announced the court s decision following oral arguments Friday and an hour of private deliberations by the high court. The state failed to argue or prove . that no conditions of release will reasonably protect the safety of any other person or the community, Vigil said. The court will affirm the decision of the district court.