So it turns out that the Texas Department of Public Safety -- the agency that tried to track down the runaway Dems on the order of Speaker Tom Craddick and even pulled in the Department of Homeland Security -- destroyed the records of the search because of their extreme civil liberties scrupulosity.
So says the DPS at least.
As the Fort Worth Star-Telegram reported yesterday, the day before the runaway Dems returned to Austin, a commander with the DPS sent out an email instructing troopers to destroy all documents and photographs connected with the search.
The explanation provided by the DPS is that this was required by federal civil liberties guidelines.
Or, as this new AP story puts it ...
The Texas public safety department said that it destroyed the records because federal regulations prohibit it from keeping intelligence information that is not part of a criminal case.
Now, I believe part of the issue here is that these were civil, not criminal, arrest warrants. The state constitution gives the Texas House Speaker the authority to have missing legislators arrested and forcibly brought to the chamber. But being absent isn't a crime, thus no criminal arrest warrants.
But let's set that aside for a moment. Does this regulation even exist? In each of the stories I've read this evening, the writer passes on that claim without any comment giving the reader a clue as to whether it has any validity.
Is there really a federal regulation stipulating that nothing that police agencies compile -- pictures, notes, phone logs, anything -- can be kept unless it pertains to a specific criminal investigation? I find it really hard to believe that such a sweeping regulation exists. Now, mind you, my question is not purely rhetorical. I have certainly asked such questions before, with great incredulity, only to find out that yes, believe it or not, the answer is 'yes.' It just doesn't sound true to me, though -- and I think the failure to mention any specific regulation and the, shall we say, diminishing credibility of the source makes me think so even more.
I can imagine that there may be rules against police departments setting up their own private intelligence agencies, and keeping dossiers on people who haven't committed crimes. But that seems like a far cry from what we're talking about here. This is just keeping some record of what took place. Is there usually such haste and punctiliousness about complying with this 'regulation'?
For the moment I'd say that what we have here is, at a minimum, an uncharacteristically rapid and total effort to safeguard the runaway Dems' civil liberties. But the first thing I'm curious to know is whether such a regulation -- applied in anything like the way we see here -- even exists. Or, is it something they just made up on the spot to explain what looks very much like an attempt to cover their tracks.
-- Josh Marshall
I also stumbled upon a curious site, Question W which encourages all of us to seek answers we should have by now on big issues.
