BOCC approves Justice Services record destruction

SANDPOINT — Bonner County commissioners unanimously approved the destruction of three different sets of records from the county’s juvenile detention center Tuesday morning.

Justice Services director Ron Stultz told commissioners that records kept from juveniles — now adults — born between 2002 and 2003 have finally passed the limit of the time those records needed to be retained and requested approval of their destruction. These types of records, he said, are required to be kept for two years past those juveniles’ 18th birthday.

“These documents would be things such as booking sheets, temporary court documents, promise to appear forms, police reports, medical screenings, medical requests, doctor’s orders, medication orders,” he said.

Stulutz also requested the destruction of more documents dating from 2011 to 2013. These records, which were mainly incident reports, were required to be kept for no less than 10 years.

Additionally, records from 2020 to 2021 were also requested for destruction by Justice Services. These documents — only requiring a two-year holding period — were reviewed and deemed inactive, therefore making it unnecessary to retain them.

However, Stultz reassured the board that the records were not disappearing completely.

“Even though we’re destroying the paper copies, we still have copies of all of this stuff electronically,” he said. “So it’s not like it’s not irretrievable, but storage of all this paperwork is not necessary and takes a lot of space.”

All three of these requests from the director passed unanimously.