An employee was arrested after gaining entry to a disaster recovery facility on Staten Island, where he is said to have taken the tapes. "It's a guarded site, and he was able to somehow convince the guard on duty that he should have access to that site," said Anthony Garvey, executive director of the pension fund.

The NYPD arrested the employee after finding the media at his home. They contained personal information including Social Security numbers, names, addresses, and bank account details. In a letter sent out to affected individuals, the Pension Fund admitted that it could not guarantee the data had not been compromised.

"As of May of 2007, anything we did was encrypted, so this wouldn't have affected anyone that we hired after then," said Garvey, who admitted that nevertheless, the details of almost the entire membership of current and retired officers had potentially been compromised.

"Once it came to our attention we knew he had no authority to be there, and we called in the major case squad of the NYPD who continued the investigation, which resulted in his arrest and the execution of a warrant at his residence in which nine of the tapes were recovered."

The accused was charged with three felonies, including burglary and computer trespass. He has been asked for bail of $1m in cash or $2m in assets. "If he makes the bail, the trial will be scheduled for some point in the future. If he doesn't make the bail, I would think the courts would want to make this as expeditious as possible," Garvey said. "He's incarcerated, having not made bail, as of today."

The pension fund is buying all affected members a year of protection using the Equifax Credit Watch service.