DEPARTMENT of Public Safety Commissioner Robert A. Guerrero on Sunday said that he did not know about nor did he tell any of his supervisors to ask police officers to sign a non-disclosure agreement or NDA regarding the governor’s office.
“There was certainly no NDA provided to or promulgated within DPS that had any association with the Office of the Governor. The governor and [the] lt. governor were not connected in any way to the drafting of any NDA for the Department of Public Safety,” Guerrero said.
He said DPS has a standing confidentiality directive to all police officers and staff to ensure that confidential information related to investigations, personal information, information about juvenile cases, and other sensitive information are not disclosed to the public.
“I have also given leeway to unit commanders to enact measures as they see fit to improve internal protocols respective to their units, regarding confidential and sensitive information,” Guerrero said.
He said he has since learned that one of these units printed out copies of an amended NDA document from another police department, but it is his understanding that no DPS officers have been asked to sign the document.
“As of today, I myself have not seen the document. I am currently reviewing the matter to find out what the details were behind that NDA and will review the necessity for that,” he said.
“I am looking into this further and will continue to work with our commanders, frontline officers, and support staff on improving any process to meet the needs of necessary confidentiality with assistance from the Office of the Attorney General.”
Guerrero added, “So there is absolutely no further confusion about this matter and it is abundantly clear: at no time was the Office of the Governor informed or involved with the drafting of an NDA for DPS.”
Guerrero reiterated that NDAs and “confidentiality agreements” are used by many police departments and law enforcement agencies “to ensure confidentiality of information, prevention of the release of information related to crime scenes, the release of information that may jeopardize future prosecution or investigations, information that may involve juveniles or sensitive family issues, and information from investigations that have yet to be adjudicated, and to protect the general confidentiality of parties involved in investigations.”
He said this is a standard process practiced by federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies to protect personal and sensitive information as part of routine standard operating procedures, particularly during criminal investigations and prosecutions.
“We apologize to the public for any confusion that was caused [by this issue],” Guerrero said. “Our police officers go to work every day with a steadfast commitment to truly keep everyone in our villages on all three islands safe. It is unfortunate that this has become a political issue to fulfill a political agenda by a number of people in our Legislature. But I can assure the public that we will continue to improve our processes to make the department more efficient and to ensure the personal and public safety of everyone in the Marianas.”
On Wednesday, a copy of the two-page NDA was presented during the House Judiciary and Governmental Operations Committee’s investigation of the governor’s public expenditures.
The committee chairwoman, Rep. Celina Babauta, alleged that police officers who serve as governor’s security aides “are being forced to sign” the NDA.
This was denied by the administration. A copy of the NDA obtained by Variety was neither signed nor dated, and it did not mention who the parties were.
The governor’s senior policy adviser, Robert Hunter, noted that the committee “presented an unsigned document with no identified parties that [the committee chair and other members] claimed they received shortly before the start of the hearing, and they immediately implicate the Governor. They created a completely false story surrounding that document and ran with that as if it is the truth.”
“So let’s get this straight: They fabricated a story or didn’t properly investigate it before they made their blatantly false claims, and now they are making demands that the administration ‘disavow’ their lie? It is time that the House Democrats come clean to the public that this is not a search for the truth as they claim it is, but a sham with a predetermined ending to fit their agenda,” Hunter added.
