The company blamed for the destruction of 1,300 Nashville police dashboard camera videos fired back yesterday, saying police department employees not only input the wrong settings but also failed to use a DVD backup system it bought in 2008, reports The Tennessean. At the same time, new questions have come up about how police notified prosecutors and defendants whose cases could hinge on the video evidence.
Police have said they discovered in late May or early June that 1,600 videos taken by their DUI, aggressive driving, and fatal crash units had been erased from a central server after a software update. The department blamed the Lenexa, Ks.-based ICOP Digital Inc., saying it was a flawed update that changed server settings and wiped all videos from October through April. At least 300 videos have been recovered. ICOP said the company’s updates leave settings unchanged. The company said that someone with the police department set the server to delete all videos after 60 days and purge them from the system 10 days later.