A Concord police report obtained by the Monitor describes several security problems within the Local Government Center, including employees overriding door locks and a lack of checks and balances to protect the company's sensitive data.

The police report also said the Local Government Center hindered the Concord police's recent investigation of a former employee accused of stealing computer tapes from the company's server. George Waldron, Merrimack County's deputy attorney, dropped that investigation in early October, saying the center's "sloppy" and "careless" security would undermine criminal charges.

The center's director, Maura Carroll, objected to Waldron's characterization and urged the Monitor to read the police department's investigative report. Carroll said that report would counter Waldron's conclusions about the center's security practices.

The Monitor recently obtained the report, written by Detective Mark Dumas, through a right-to-know request. It not only echoed Waldron's concerns about security, but also said the center's lawyers "hindered" and "hampered" the police investigation of the missing computer tapes.

Dumas complained in his report that he was prevented from speaking to center employees and computer experts directly and had to instead go through the center's attorney, Christopher Carter of Hinckley, Allen & Snyder.

"This process greatly hindered my ability to investigate this matter and was especially problematic when I was forced to filter technical conversations with forensic consultants through Carter," Dumas's report said. "The end result was Carter's intervention caused extensive time periods to lapse between requests for information and responses being received."

Dumas continued, "Often, that information was so filter(ed) or abbreviated, that requests often needed to be resubmitted for clarification."

Carroll did not respond this week to requests for a follow-up interview.

Carter, and his partner on the case, attorney Mark McCue, strongly dispute Dumas's assertions.

McCue said he and Carter and the Local Government Center staff fully cooperated with the Concord police and had what he thought was a productive working relationship. Carter said he did direct communications between the police and the center's employees and computer expert - but not to stymie the investigation.

The Local Government Center administers benefit plans for thousands of public employees and stores their personal information on its computer files. McCue said he and Carter had an obligation to protect those files. In addition, Carter said he wanted to direct police inquiries to the right people and minimize any interference with day-to-day work at the center.

Dumas's allegation of them hindering the investigation is "a gross overstatement," McCue said. "Right from the beginning, we cooperated," he said. "We engaged a (computer) forensic expert and made his services available. In no way did we filter any questions."

Stolen tapes

The Concord police began its investigation in August 2008 after the Local Government Center alerted them to a possible theft of computer backup tapes. Dumas interviewed supervisors at the Local Government Center and the employee they suspected had taken the tapes, Ruthanne Bradley of Concord.

Dumas toured the center's server room, where the tapes were missing. It was then that he noted what he considered numerous security concerns. The main office had no lock on the door, and the door to the server room had a hollow core, Dumas wrote.

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