City Of Dallas Releases Report On Nearly 21 Terabytes Of Lost Data

RELATED: 'Anytime Data Is Lost, I Consider It A Disaster' Says Expert Who Reviewed Dallas Data Loss Report 

DALLAS (CBSDFW.COM) - The City of Dallas released a 131-page report Thursday evening, Sept. 30, on missing data involving Dallas Police cases from March 2021.

The city said 20.9 terabytes of data totaling 8.26 million files were lost.

The report does not detail which cases might be impacted.

The investigation into the actions of Dallas city personnel continues and the report doesn't say if any employees might be disciplined.

"The City understands the seriousness and potential impacts of this data loss and we are committed to improving how we manage our data to ensure its security and integrity," said City Manager T.C. Broadnax in a statement. "In this report, our IT Department provides a path forward with a series of direct and actionable recommendations to improve our management of data and guard against any future data loss."

READ FULL REPORT HERE

The report cites actions taken by a city IT employee as the cause of the archive deletions and examines other factors and conditions contributing to the events.

Specifically, the data loss impacted archive files of the Dallas Police Department and consisted of archived images, videos, audio files, case notes and other administrative documents gathered by the department.

"The Dallas Police Department and ITS continue to work with the Dallas County District Attorney's Office to review all upcoming cases to ensure evidentiary records are complete and prosecutions can move forward," the city said in a news release.

Additionally, the investigation delineates thorough reviews conducted of other backup and archive processes and confirms that other city systems were unaffected by these events, the city said.