Search Begins for Missing Recording

The search for missing logging tapes began last Friday, right after interim Helena-West Helena (Ark.) police chief Fred Fielder appeared in city court and pled not guilty to violating the state’s Freedom of Information Act. The Daily World newspaper had requested tapes of calls on Jan. 31st, but were told by the chief that a glitch resulted in out-going calls only not being recorded that day and failed to meet the law’s response deadline. Among the out-going calls was one made after a hang-up 911 call, during which a citizen claimed the dispatcher made an inappropriate remark to a child. The actual remark was not revealed. During the search, the newspaper said that emergency management director Michael Burchett “repeatedly switched the disks” trying to find any record of calls on that day. No luck. A service engineer from the logging recorder company was there to examine the machine and say it was working fine. Burchett said that the disk for January seems to have been over-written. Fielder said disks were properly labeled, and that “broken or frayed wires” had caused the problem. Read the full story here and draw your own conclusion.