Photo by Bobby Bank/WireImage
By Michael Winter, USA TODAY
Shredded Long Island police records
that landed on spectators at Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade were
brought by a department employee who tossed the confidential confetti
with his family, a New York TV station reports.
Among the easily identifiable records
from the Nassau County Police Department were what appears to be
details of Mitt Romney's motorcade route to and from the final
presidential debate at Hofstra University.
Confetti collected by
spectators near 65th Street and Central Park West also contained arrest
records, incident reports and personal information and that identified
undercover officers, WPIX-TV says.
"There
are phone numbers, addresses, more Social Security numbers, license
plate numbers," said Ethan Finkelstein, 18, of Manhattan, who gathered
up some of the confetti with friends. "And then we find all these
incident reports from police."
He gave the confetti to police, who continue to investigate.
Sources told WPIX, which broke the story Friday,
that the files came from the Nassau County Police Academy and that
protection has been offered to all officers whose identifies were
revealed. Police would not identify the employee who brought the
confetti to the parade.
"The Nassau County Police Department is
very concerned about this situation," Inspector Kenneth Lack said. "We
will be conducting an investigation into this matter as well as
reviewing our procedures for the disposing of sensitive documents."
Instead of strip-cutting shredders, Nassau police may buy cross-cutting machines that would dice files into small pieces.
For
the record, Macy's is not guilty. The parade sponsor said it uses
"commercially manufactured, multicolor confetti, not shredded paper."