Dallas Police Accidentally Delete 8 Terabytes of Case Files During Migration

On April 5, 2021, the city of Dallas learned that a police employee had accidentally deleted 22 terabytes of digital case files while migrating data from a cloud-based archive to an on-premise server. Police recovered 14 terabytes; the remaining 8 terabytes are believed permanently deleted. The files included audio recordings, case notes, images and videos. The deletion affected prosecution of cases with offense dates before July 28, 2020. At least one murder trial was delayed. The police department attributed the deletion to human error and announced new safeguards, including requiring two employees for file migrations and a 14-day recycle bin.