The firing of two New Mexico Children, Youth and Families Department employees who raised concerns about the agency’s practice of encrypting and destroying records may lead to an investigation and hamper representation of children in custody.
The agency used a text messaging app called Signal to discuss official business, including children in the state's custody and the handling of COVID-19. Agency leaders later decided to set many of those messages to be automatically deleted to prevent future access, the Las Cruces Sun-News said.
"So much for that open, transparent and responsible agenda, @GovMLG," Brett Kokinadis, the 2nd Vice-Chair Santa Fe Republican Party, said in a tweet. "Is the policy if you can't keep the dirty laundry in the closet you get fired? It gives new meaning to 'We're all in this together.'"
The office of New Mexico Attorney General Hector Balderas is investigating the agency’s use of the Signal messaging app. Agency officials including Secretary Brian Blalock said they used the app for text exchanges not subject to public-record laws, which they said included employee banter, routine check-ins between staff members and other insignificant exchanges, the newspaper said.
By making a public records request, the newspaper’s Searchlight New Mexico investigation found the Office of the Governor and the Department of Information Technology supported the "systematic deletion of messages," through a check of emails and policy guidance provided under that request, the Sun-News said
Legal experts have warned these actions are likely to result in an investigation into the agency. It may "cripple the ability of attorneys to represent children in state custody" as it violated the New Mexico Public Records Act, the newspaper reported.
