From today's Portland Press Herald:
Portland police are using an encrypted app with disappearing messages for stakeouts, investigations
In some cases, officers set messages in the Signal app to delete after 24 hours. People in the legal field say that raises questions about whether police are hiding information.
By MORGAN WOMACK Staff Writer
Portland police are using a controversial private messaging app to chat with one another during tactical operations, and many of their texts are set to delete automatically.
The messages, which the Portland Press Herald acquired through a public records request, indicate that members of the police department's special reaction team use the encrypted app, Signal, to communicate during apparent stakeouts and active investigations.
Cumberland County's top prosecutor said the use of Signal raises questions about "whether something is being hidden," while a prominent defense attorney described police using the auto-delete function as setting a dangerous precedent.
Law enforcement leaders and public officials across the nation, including in Arizona, Georgia and Michigan, have come under fire from state officials and legal experts in recent years for using the app. In Lewiston, two City Council members were censured in October for using it to text with a police detective who resigned that month.
Members of Maine's congressional delegation also called for transparency regarding the app's usage last year after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and other senior federal officials shared war plans in a Signal group chat that included a reporter, apparently by mistake.
Signal is a publicly downloadable app that offers messaging and call functions linked to a cellphone number. One of its signature offerings is an auto-delete function in which conversations are automatically wiped on a recurring basis. Another feature is end-to-end encryption, which prevents Signal messages from being accessed by anyone other than the sender and intended recipients.
In November, Portland Police Department officials declined to answer questions about whether officers were using the app. The following month, they also denied a public records request for any Signal messages.
But after a monthslong appeal process, the police department provided the Press Herald with a limited set of screenshots showing Signal messages sent between October and January.
The screenshots showed the following:
Officers created large Signal group chats for specific operations, including staking out a suspect and searching for a missing child. They also used the app to collaborate with a detective from the Cumberland County Sheriff's Office.
Police officers set some message threads to delete after 24 hours. Many messages appeared to be missing from the conversations included in the records.
Of the messages that weren't deleted, many were redacted under a Maine law that limits investigative records that criminal justice agencies can release.
ARE POLICE ALLOWED TO USE SIGNAL?
Portland police Chief Mark Dubois declined an interview request about his department's use of Signal but said in a written statement Monday that officers are allowed to use the app "as a secure communication tool in certain circumstances, particularly during active incidents or when sensitive information is involved."
Dubois cited the app's end-to-end encryption as an "added layer of protection" for operational communications.
He said any messages that must be retained are kept in compliance with Maine law and department policy. He didn't address why many of the requested messages were apparently deleted automatically.
"The application serves as a supplemental communication tool, similar to a phone call, text message, or radio transmission," Dubois said in his statement.
"This allows for timely and secure coordination when needed."
Portland Mayor Mark Dion, a former Cumberland County sheriff, said he's not generally concerned about officers using the app or deleting messages because he trusts the department to retain any records as necessary.
Cumberland County District Attorney Jacqueline Sartoris said Monday that while she understands why police would want to communicate securely for investigative reasons, she doesn't support use of an app that automatically deletes messages.
She said she plans to reach out to law enforcement officials and remind them that "this is not a best practice," and that she hopes to work with police to establish guidance for using apps like these.
Sartoris described the officers' use of Signal as another example of police rolling out new technology before clear guardrails have been established. She referenced Maine police agencies that are using artificial intelligence technology to write their police reports — a practice that has also been criticized by legal experts and attorneys.
As a prosecutor, Sartoris said she'd rather have police provide her with all the information and communications they can.
Prosecutors already redact necessary investigative information that police provide them in the discovery process, she said, so officers "don't need to go that extra step" of using an app that hides their conversations.
Timothy Zerillo, a Maine defense attorney who has served as a leader of state and national criminal defense associations, said he and his colleagues have never received any Signal chats in discovery.
He said it's "infuriating" to hear that police are setting messages to be deleted, and that the department should have notified attorneys about this practice.
WHAT'S IN THE MESSAGES?
Days after the Press Herald submitted its initial public records request, Portland Detective Jeffrey Tully altered the settings of at least two group chats on Nov. 21 to delete messages after a certain time frame.
One chat, named "2025 SRT Call Out," was changed to delete messages after one week. Another, named "SRT group chat - non call," was set to delete messages after one day, according to the records.
(SRT refers to the department's special reaction team.) The sections of both threads acquired by the Press Herald were otherwise empty. Because of how Signal's auto-delete function works, it's unclear how many messages, if any, were erased.
Other chat threads showed officers strategizing during operations. A group of messages on Jan.
5 showed officers coordinating on an apparent stakeout to find a "wanted subject."
Officers shared an apparent mugshot in the chat and messaged one another while waiting outside an appointment where they believed the suspect would appear. They used the app to send pins of their location and remarked on where the person might be when he didn't show.
The police department declined to release a message thread between an employee at the Cumberland County Sheriff's Office and the special reaction team.
That thread contained information about a missing juvenile and "many mentions of law enforcement strategies and surveillance vehicles," Nicole Albert, the department's attorney, said in a statement.
Those messages may have referred to an October investigation in which police were searching for a missing 13-year-old girl.
The suspect in that case was charged with kidnapping after police found him with the missing girl at an apartment in Portland.
Records provided by the police department indicate that Patrick Ferriter, a now-former detective and sergeant at the sheriff's office, was included in the chat with the special reactions team. Ferriter left the sheriff's office late last year, Sheriff Kevin Joyce said. According to Ferriter's LinkedIn profile, he started at the Maine State Police this month.
Joyce declined an interview about the Signal messages because he and his command staff are not familiar with the app, and because Ferriter no longer works for the sheriff's office.
"As I mentioned, I am not familiar with the app or how it works," Joyce said in a statement Monday.
"Additionally, I am not aware of any other apps that might make our jobs easier as there are thousands of apps being offered to the public. Therefore, it will be difficult to interview on a topic I'm not up to speed on."
Morgan Womack — 207-791- 6216 mwomack@metln.org