Judge should decide what stays secret in ex-police chief’s lawsuit, city attorney says
The city’s lawyers have asked the court to award Fort Worth a protective order that would keep certain information secret if it is divulged in a fired police chief’s whistleblower lawsuit.
Part of former Fort Worth Police Chief Joel Fitzgerald’s lawsuit is about his investigation into maintaining security, or the city’s lack of effort to maintain security, concerning a federal computer information system.
Stephen Kennedy, Fitzgerald’s attorney, is concerned that should the city’s request be granted, any and all information provided by the city to satisfy the demands of the lawsuit could become secret. The courts are an open institution, Kennedy said.
Kennedy said he also is concerned about who will bear the burden of proving what information will be designated confidential and what should be publicly available.
“I’m concerned that the city could get to decide what’s confidential,” Kennedy said. “Once you get the power to decide what’s confidential, everything becomes confidential.”
City officials say the goal is to protect information related to the personal matters of the city’s officers, employees or citizens, or as it relates to security and network vulnerability.
The side wishing to have the information designated as confidential would bear the burden of proving that information by law should be kept secret from the public, according to a statement from the city.
In situations where there is a challenge to the information being designated as confidential, a judge would decide what is a city secret and what could be released to the public, the city’s statement said.
For example, a map of the city’s entire network security system, documents and information related to the city’s security system, and the location and information concerning the city’s critical infrastructure and secure servers, could become a part of the information divulged to the court during the course of the lawsuit, according to the city.
The public disclosure of computer security information could make the city vulnerable to criminal activity or an act of terrorism, according to the city’s motion.
Fitzgerald’s lawyers have requested that Fort Worth hand over information about the security deployed around the Criminal Justice Information Services system, or CJIS.
CJIS is a federal database used to share information such as fingerprint identification and national criminal background check information with local law enforcement. The city has asked that sensitive personal and security information be protected from public release, the city’s motion says.
One reason Fitzgerald says he was fired is because he was about to tell an FBI investigator about incorrect information that city staff allegedly provided a state auditor regarding Fort Worth’s specific security lapses for CJIS, according to his lawsuit.
Fitzgerald was fired just moments before that meeting was scheduled to take place, his lawsuit says. Fitzgerald alleges there was security that was supposed to be in place that was not in place and people had access to the system who were not supposed to have access, according to the suit.
