Did a Texas Sheriff violate email compliance laws?
Bill Murphy and Mike Glenn of the Houston chronicle had an interesting write up on January 17th about potential email compliance regulations in Texas? About two weeks ago the sheriffs office in Harris County instituted a new policy that all emails are automatically deleted after 14 days. At least one Sargent, Richard Newby, was caught off guard when he showed up to work and saw the email warning message flashing on his screen. Newby called the new policy “unsettling,” as personnel rosters and commander tasks were simply wiped clean. Officials stated that the reason for the new policy was to help ease a “severe shortage” of email storage capacity on the offices system. The question is: does the new policy comply with state law?
This is a question that has been assigned to the office of John Barnhill, assistant attorney of Harris County, to answer. Barnhill has been asked to review the sheriff’s new policy to see if it meets Texas email compliance regulations. Murphy and Glenn cite that under Texas state law, “local governments and their departments must retain correspondence related to the departments administration for two years and correspondence about policies and program development for five years.”
How can this new policy possibly meet the email retention guidelines set forth by the state? The sheriff’s office is an integral county operation that surely encompasses a great deal of correspondence with local administration. Two weeks? I understand that email storage space is a primary concern for most businesses regardless of size, but intentionally deleting electronic communication is bound to have some serious consequences down the road. The Texas Public Information Act and the Freedom of Information Foundation of Texas are two organizations referenced in the article that will certainly have opinions on the matter if the sheriff’s office is indeed deemed email compliant. Is the sheriff’s office even aware of email compliance regulations in Texas? That is my final thought on the matter, becasue I find the quick fix solution they are using to be puzzling.
