Lawyer's email told all Seattle police employees to preserve texts

Amid Seattle's 2020 racial justice protests, the police department's top lawyer notified all employees on June 11 to "preserve any text … messages that relate to City business," says an email obtained by Axios.

• By then, two public records requests had come in, per the email sent by chief legal counsel Rebecca Boatright.

Why it matters: The email offers more context to Axios' report on Wednesday about ex-police chief Carmen Best's testimony last month on why her texts are missing from the controversial period.

• Best testified she periodically deleted her texts "in bulk" after deciding they didn't contain information requiring them to be kept.

Yes, but: While "transitory" records must only be kept "as needed," state law says once an agency gets a records request, it "may not destroy or erase" any existing record "until the request is resolved."

Go deeper: Seattle leaders won’t probe deleted texts from 2020

• More finger-pointing over deleted texts, but no probe