Malfunction, Logging Tapes Lost

A mechanical malfunction prevented a logging recorder at the New London (Conn.) police department from recording about one week’s of telephone calls, officials learned when they tried to retrieve information about a homicide. Anything from June 14th to 21st was lost. The traffic is digitized and stored on a hard disk drive for 30 days, a spokeperson said, then transferred to an archive. He didn’t say if that was tape, DVD or other media. Since the information request was beyond the 30-day limit for the hard disk, police tried to retrieve the recordings for a homicide case from the archive media, and discovered that it was unreadable. Police said it was not human error or malfeasance, but rather a mechanical or electronic glitch that prevented the recordings from being transferred. The spokesman added that radio traffic was recorded separately and is available, but all 911 calls are not. It’s not clear how important the calls recordings would have been during court proceedings for the homicide case.