ACLU prods Metro to delete records

Adrienne Packer

Thursday, Sept. 27, 2001 | 10:47 a.m.

Three months after local governments amended work card ordinances to exclude dozens of job categories, civil rights leaders want a plan to expunge the records and are requesting that it be put in writing.

American Civil Liberties Union representatives have made their position clear: All employee files that are no longer required must be destroyed.

But Gary Peck, executive director of the ACLU of Nevada, claims Metro Police's position on how to comply with ordinances adopted by Las Vegas and Clark County is more foggy and less consistent.

Peck said Metro administrators have been unclear about whether they plan to simply delete names from a statewide law enforcement database or completely expunge all files, including fingerprints and photographs.

"Nothing about the way in which Metro has thus far administered an enforced work card system inspires public confidence that they will now do the right thing," Peck said.

"I think the public is entitled to a clear, concise, unambiguously stated plan for how they intend to eradicate all of this information."

The Clark County Commission and Las Vegas City Council recently voted to exclude several gaming-related positions from requiring work cards -- documents produced after criminal background checks on employees are completed.

The decision affected thousands of workers and created a workload for Metro that administrators have claimed will take years to complete. Of the 2 million work card files no longer needed, about 600,000 are mixed in on microfilm with ongoing -- and in some cases decades-old -- investigations.

The ACLU has suggested that Metro not only has kept personal documents it no longer needs, but that police have misused the records.

"The consensus is they need to eradicate that information and come up with a plan to do it," Peck said. "Essentially, they're saying here's the mess we made by abusing our authority and using work cards in ways they were never intended to be used."

Metro Fiscal Affairs Committee members on Monday gave police permission to purge out-of-date files, but Deputy Chief Richard McKee said the department was still working on a plan to eradicate all unneeded information.

A computer program must be written to delete the documents.

Clark County Commission Chairman Dario Herrera assured that all work card documents belonging to employees who no longer need them will eventually be destroyed.

In the meantime, Herrera said he wrote Sheriff Jerry Keller, asking him to protect the private documents from misuse.

"I am going to ask Metro to adopt a policy that would ensure private law-abiding citizens the protection of privacy and ensure the integrity of files while they're waiting to be destroyed," Herrera said.