There was a memo telling officers not to send text messages while driving and a warning that criminals had found a way to break into the trunks of Crown Victoria police cruisers. A document on state budget cuts disclosed which roads the state police would stop patrolling this year because of reduced staffing.
In one of the leaked documents, the Border Patrol reported how four “possible illegal aliens” encountered by sheriff’s deputies in southern Arizona on June 18 were found to be Qatari nationals in the country legally. Other memos warned officers of a FedEx truck that might be smuggling illegal immigrants and advised that two armed, off-duty Marines had been found patrolling the border.
“The documents are sensitive, but they don’t appear to be classified,” said Capt. Steve Harrison, a department spokesman.
The Arizona police agency shut down its e-mail system on Thursday and Friday to allow computer forensics experts time to investigate the intrusion, which was orchestrated by Lulz Security, a group of hackers who have previously gained access to a number of government and private Web sites.
Most alarming to the Arizona police was the release of personal data of some officers, including their home and cellphone numbers and addresses. The identities of some undercover officers were also disclosed.
“They put these officers’ lives in jeopardy,” Captain Harrison said of the hackers, who described their intrusion as a response to Arizona’s immigration crackdown last year.
Several officers whose names were in the documents told The Associated Press that their phones were ringing constantly on Thursday night with calls from people who had seen their numbers online. “It’s getting real annoying,” Officer Daniel Scott said.
Captain Harrison said the release of the documents was not likely to affect current criminal cases. But he said the information could alert potential suspects that the police were monitoring them, interfering with future prosecutions.
The documents provided a behind-the-scenes look at the range of law enforcement priorities in Arizona.
An intelligence bulletin by the F.B.I. and the United States attorney’s office in Arizona mentioned five incidents over a four-week period in early 2008: A man who said he was Taiwanese was questioned after he took photographs of a federal courthouse; five Hispanic people were found in a vehicle with Mexican plates parked near the Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station; a man reportedly sent his brother, who was in the Taliban in Afghanistan, large amounts of money; a “nervous” man was reported trying to buy chemicals; and a Lebanese man in the country illegally was detained after he was found with envelopes stuffed with money placed throughout his vehicle.
A counterterrorism alert, dated May 3, warned Arizona officers to be on guard for attacks after the killing of Osama bin Laden. Potential targets in the state, the memo said, could be shopping malls, sporting events like the Major League Baseball All-Star game in July and military installations.
In a more local matter, an Officer Safety Bulletin warned about an Arizona man who apparently had battled cocaine addiction, threatened to kill an unidentified victim and claimed that “he ate their pet cat.”
An internal memo urged officers to slow down while driving, reminding them that they saved relatively short amounts of time when they went above the limit of 100 miles per hour recommended in urgent situations.
It is clear that computer security was a concern. A 2009 memo passed along from a law enforcement group in Maryland warned officers to be careful of e-mails purporting to be from the F.B.I. and containing a harmful attachment. Another memo warned officers to be careful of what they put on social networking sites, because the information could be used to damage their credibility in court.
Marc Lacey reported from Phoenix and Richard Oppel from New York. Andrew Lehren contributed reporting from New York.
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