KINGMAN, Ariz. - A batch of documents from the Department of Child Safety was found in Kingman. They contained personal information including names and social security numbers. the documents reportedly contained detailed descriptions of investigations.
They were found a week ago by someone dumpster-diving in downtown Kingman. That person turned them over to a friend who spoke with FOX 10.
"It is clearly uncalled for, it is unprofessional, and they shouldn't be in the field like this if that is what they are going to be doing," said Chelsea Conley.
Some of the documents date back to 2012, a few of them have the words "completed" and "done" written across the front page.
But the department has strict guidelines when it comes to getting rid of documents, they aren't supposed to end up in publicly accessible dumpsters.
"It's not right, that is someone's personal information, people don't need to know about why someone has lost their kids, and their address, and what is going on, all that is no one's business," said Conley.
This isn't the first time that DCS, and then CPS ran into problems like this. In November of 2013, a box full of documents was found in a Phoenix alley.
They belonged to a former employee who had recently moved. We alerted DCS officials to the Kingman documents; they're now trying to figure out how they ended up in a dumpster.
"It is very wrong, if you care, then you are not going to do that, you're not going to just put someone's information out there," said Conley.
DCS issued the following statement Monday: "Every DCS employee is well aware of the importance of records security and confidentiality, and any lapse in those procedures is unacceptable. A complete investigation is underway to determine how this incident occurred."