Electronic case files from City treatment courts that contained sensitive information were not protected from unauthorized access, recent revelations suggest.
A recent audit of the South Dallas Drug Court and South Oak Cliff Veterans’ Treatment Court found both courts to be poorly managed, as previously reported by The Dallas Express.
As part of that mismanagement, electronic case files were “not always protected from unauthorized access,” according to City Auditor Mark Swann.
Swann found that a quarter of the people who had access to the database of electronic files were no longer employed by the City of Dallas.
Following the release of the audit, the City Attorney’s Office said it would promptly revoke the former employees’ access to the files.
The Dallas Express reached out to the City to confirm the access was revoked, but was told by the City public information manager Jennifer Brown that “[t]he City Attorney’s Office does not have comment to provide on this.”
On Monday, the city council’s Government Performance and Financial Management Committee was briefed on these findings.
“I think we all can recognize that’s problematic,” committee chair Cara Mendelsohn said.
“We need to get a better handle on who has access to what,” said Swann, adding that the termination process of City employees must be improved.
Other findings from Swann’s audit include the fact that both paper and electronic files did “not include complete and accurate records of participants’ progress, compliance, successful completion of treatment, and community service hours.”
Court management could also not provide a reliable listing of participants, whether current or past.
Because the treatment court management reportedly did not effectively monitor its contracts, one treatment provider was found to possibly be charging additional fees to participants for a program that is “free and paid for with federal grant money,” as previously reported by The Dallas Express.
During Monday’s committee meeting, Senior Auditor Keith Maddox said, “The vendor contractor had included in their proposal that once the participant had completed the free period, they would automatically be charged participation to continue the program.”
“That question was presented to the city attorney’s office, and they weren’t aware of it, and they said [they] would look into it,” he continued. “We were never able to identify actually if there was a charge because it was outside [our] scope.”
“They were sub-recipients and this would be a client of the sub-recipient, so we weren’t able to identify and don’t know if there was ever a charge,” Maddox said. “They did subsequently give an email indicating that they never charged a client for participating in the program, but we can’t vouch.”
City staff appeared to indicate the vendor in question no longer works with the City. The Dallas Express reached out to the City to confirm whether the vendor had been removed, but was told the City Attorney’s Office has no comment to provide on the matter.
