Salvage Data in a Disaster

Law enforcement agencies have to plan and prepare to serve the community no matter what disaster might occur. On top of that, they have to plan how to help the community survive and recover. In the process of creating emergency response plans, agencies forget to include saving themselves. The records and data are often not only the operational foundation of the agency but also its legal salvation if accusations are made against it.

If you look back 25 to 30 years ago, salvaging “data” was cumbersome and space consuming. File boxes were full of folders, each with an identifying case number or involved person’s name, and stacked up. File folders neatly (most of the time) lined up inside boxes; boxes neatly lined up and stacked up, literally in warehouses with an index system so the records master could find what was needed when it was called for. Of course, somewhere, there are still such warehouses for the records that are so old they haven’t been digitized (or for agencies who haven’t gone digital yet if such still exists).

If you sought out those paper records today, you’d likely find half or more of them no longer available. Why? Because paper—although we don’t think about it—is an organic product and susceptible to deterioration. If kept in a perfectly climate-controlled area, it will last longer, but if there’s excessive heat, moisture, etc. then the paper breaks down. Some of those warehouses are/were in areas prone to flooding and the records were destroyed by saturation. Some have burned down or had fires inside them.

This loss of records due to the storage system, in addition to the vast amounts of space and time it took to archive and access them, was one of the biggest reasons agencies justified switching to digital files and data storage.
However, many people make the mistake of thinking that digital files are impervious. This isn’t the case. Those digital files can be lost and destroyed, and therefore have to be protected. All too often agencies fail to plan to salvage or protect their digital data/files in the event of a disaster. The loss of such files can have long-reaching severe negative effects.

Hard disk vs solid state drives

Consider the method(s) you will use to store your agency’s files. Think about a preemptive plan on how those files will be backed up and protected in the event of a natural or manmade disaster that might impact them. Additionally, as we all know today, we are no longer just storing copies of paper documents. We have to store digital images of such documents along with pictures, video and voice recordings as well.
All of that has to be cross-indexed appropriately and stored in such a fashion as to accomplish three goals:

• Take up as little space as possible.
• Be easily accessible for reference as necessary.
• Cost as little as can be managed to maintain budget considerations.

The first and most common data storage media was and is the hard drive. Most folks don’t think about the hard drive in their computer beyond storage capacity. Most of us don’t think about the fact that there is one in our patrol vehicle—more than one if you consider all of them: there’s one in the dashboard, one in your mobile data terminal, in your trunk/storage area for video, in your camera, the list goes on. But there is more than one kind of hard drive and different types of software to manage and access what’s stored on them.

Depending on the size of the agency, the local data storage may be as small as a few networked hard drives or as large as a server farm in a warehouse—which is still, at its most basic, a series of networked hard drives. The two most common types of hard drives are Hard Disk Drives (HDDs) and Solid State Drives (SSDs). HDDs use spinning magnetic disks to store data, like a CD or DVD but using magnetic storage instead of optical storage. SSDs are comprised of a series of flash memory chips.

HDDs are more susceptible to damage and have parts (the rotational motor as the example) that can break or wear out. That said, HDDs usually have a longer life span than SSDs if the data stored is going to be accessed frequently. Because SSDs run hotter and are more compact, intensifying the heat even more, the memory chips tend to degrade faster than the magnetic disk in an HDD. However, if the data stored isn’t going to be frequently accessed then the SSDs are better to use because their structure is less likely to be damaged by the surrounding environment.

The challenge of volume

The largest challenge faced with data storage is volume. Fifty years ago, agencies had to store paper records, Polaroid (or other) photographs and maybe a few cassette audio recordings. In today’s law enforcement world, the data stored is more expansive because it includes the records such as reports, citations, statements, and also includes digital photos, audio recordings (statements, communication logs, etc.), video recordings (body cams, dash cams, interview rooms, etc.) and more. While “copies” of printed documents can take up mere kilobytes of data space, multiple video files can claim hundreds of gigabytes. It’s not uncommon for even a small agency to compile a terabyte or more of data each week that needs to be stored and protected from disasters.

The simplest and safest way to backup all your data and protect it from harm due to a disaster at your agency’s location is off-site redundant storage. We all have access to “the cloud” in some form and there are a plethora of data storage/management services available for the long term back up and storage of your materials.

Quantum Corporation, for example, offers tiered backup and storage services using varying types of storage media dependent on the agency’s budget and data volume. Such solutions should be examined, at a minimum, because they offer off-site storage and management solutions.

An agency should be careful about a company that offers to backup and store the agency’s files in a single server farm. Some companies sell such storage services and claim that the single location helps to insure access control and security of the servers. While those points are both of value, what happens if the server farm itself is damaged or destroyed? It may not be rooted in technology, but the old operational saying that “two is one; one is none,” applies here as well.

Tiered storage and speed of access

After speaking with several officers responsible for their agency’s records safety, it appears that the most common form of data storage runs in this order with time frames differing depending on the size of the agency:

• First six months—Local network hard drives, backed up to remote location hard drives
• Next six months—Agency’s long term record storage, backed up to remote location hard drives
• After first year—Agency’s permanent records storage, backed up to remote location hard drives and/or stored on optical disks (CD/DVD)

The reasoning for such tiered storage is speed of access. In the first six months, most case files are accessed far more frequently and needed relatively quickly. After the first six months, aside from the commonality of serious crimes investigations, most cases are closed and can be filed for longer storage. After a year, with a few obvious exceptions, the files can be permanently stored. The time frames are dependent on the local court systems and how fast they work. Usually, the larger the jurisdiction the slower things move, so the time frames reflected above may be stretched out a bit.

The end result is the same, though. Every agency that uses any type of digital storage system has to plan for the long term storage and access of the files. Thankfully, simply due to the nature of law enforcement and the necessity of having the integrity of those files perpetually guaranteed, the “normal” extra steps taken to protect files in the event of disasters are already performed. Files are (usually) already redundantly stored and digital deterioration is guarded against.

Short of a nuclear blast (which will wipe HDDs), an electro-magnetic pulse burst (which might wipe HDDs) or a fire (greater chance of this) that melts or otherwise damages the storage media, most agency files are already so protected that there is no worry when it comes to emergency planning.

If that’s not the case at your agency, you might want to consider a discussion with your records keeper.

Paper has long gone by the wayside when it comes to long-term storage. Digitally scanning older documents takes a lot of time but for the past two decades at least, digital records keeping has been the way law enforcement work gets done. If your agency is still storing mass quantities of paper anything, it’s time to take a look and start planning for a better way to do business and a better way to protect your data in the event of a disaster.