An article in the Sunday Times seems to warrant some attention.  I have
excerpted some key paragraphs.

Concerns at A.C.L.U. Over Document Shredding
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/05/national/05aclu.html?ei=5065&en=6ae08e08ba5358
7f&ex=1118548800&partner=MYWAY&pagewanted=print  This link appears to be working
as of this AM.

The ACLU appears to have a problem in that shredders have appeared in apparent
contradiction with established practices.  The ACLU has an archives/RM program
... policies in place and yet legal risk problems have been placed on the back
burner for the sake of convenience.  .

The question is "as a records manager what would you do ... what would you have
done"

My feeling is that managers should have discretion in destroying documents ...
copies, unneeded drafts etc.  and that listing of everything that hits the
shredder might just be overkill in this instance.  (It wouldn't be high on my
daily priority list.) Would not posting of what is in fact transitory above the
shredders be sufficient?  Should we not trust staff at some point.

If volumes of shredding are tracked by the RM staff ... should that not point
out sudden leaps in shredding in volume or sudden bouts of hoarding documents
... both of which could be investigated by RM staff.

Comments anyone?... other than the irony of this concern being raised at the
ACLU.

Regards
Jim

Jim Connelly
St. Albert, Alberta
[log in to unmask]
1-780-460-7089

Sunday New York Times
June 5, 2005
Concerns at A.C.L.U. Over Document Shredding
By STEPHANIE STROM
The American Civil Liberties Union has been shredding some documents over the
repeated objections of its records manager and in conflict with its longstanding
policies on the preservation and disposal of records.
...
Janet Linde, who oversaw the A.C.L.U.'s archives for over a decade until she
resigned last month, raised concerns in e-mail messages and memorandums for over
two years that officials' use of shredders in their offices made a mockery of
the organization's policy to supervise document destruction and created
potential legal risks.
...
The A.C.L.U. allows for document shredding but has policies for recording what
is destroyed that predate recent changes in the law, and it has historically
placed great emphasis on preserving records. Its policy lists specific types of
documents - including duplicate records and outside publications - that can be
destroyed without creating a record. For other materials, employees are
instructed to contact the archives.
...
Under the A.C.L.U.'s policy, employees deposit documents, disks and other files
slated for destruction in locked bins in their departments. They are required to
complete and sign a form next to the box, describing what they have deposited.

A contractor collects the bins each month and shreds the contents under the
watch of an A.C.L.U. records manager, who then countersigns the sheets to
confirm the destruction.
...
So when Anthony D. Romero, the executive director of the organization, casually
mentioned to a group of employees in 2002, about a year after his arrival, that
he had a shredder in his office, they were shocked, ... Mr. Romero was told it
was a violation of policy, the former employees said, but no one pushed the
issue.
...
The organization hired Richard M. Smith, an Internet and computer security
expert, to examine its practices and offer suggestions for improvement. Among
other things, he recommended that shredders be installed in every department to
make document disposal more convenient.

In a July 2002 e-mail message to Barry Steinhardt, an A.C.L.U. lawyer who
specializes in matters of privacy, Ms. Linde objected to that recommendation,
saying that Mr. Smith seemed unaware of the organization's document retention
policy. She noted that she had asked to sit in on his audit but had been
excluded.

Employees began noticing shredders next to copiers throughout the organization
in early 2003, according to e-mails.
...
Ms. Linde wrote a memorandum voicing her concerns, so the A.C.L.U. sought advice
from the law firm that handles its real estate matters in Washington, D.C. The
firm forwarded a report that echoed many of Ms. Linde's points, and several
shredders were removed, according to memorandums.

Mr. Romero kept his shredder, as did Alma Montclair, the director of
administration and finance, according to those memorandums. Later, records
managers noted that the accounting and human resources departments had
shredders, and, more recently, that Donna McKay, the A.C.L.U.'s director of
development, had one, too.

To track what was being destroyed on those machines, the records managers
attempted to impose a system similar to the one used for the locked bins,
putting document destruction sheets next to all the shredders except Mr.
Romero's about a year ago. Employees in the departments with the shredders
signed the sheets, according to a memorandum, but rarely noted what they were
shredding. ...

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