Believe it or not, there are companies of all categories - small, medium, and large - that do not perform routine backups! I have run into them in my daily work routine. When I reported this "oops" to the appropriate personnel, they usually just shrugged their shoulders. The majority of the "no backup" bunch is in the small to medium size company. I can understand to a degree. These folks don't have large IT Departments. Most only have one to four people. BUT, even with that small number, someone needs to grab that "data monster" by the horns and do the backups. In lots of cases, they will have to do some educating of themselves on what the various backups are. Then, once you get them running decently, find some location (a place on some system within the organization) to restore your backup or some part of it. This will take some planning, but it needs to be done. Further down the road it will be necessary to backup, restore, and compare for correctness.
Back to this issue - I find it highly unlikely that NYPD has NO reliable data backup in place. Then, beyond that, a good Disaster Recovery Plan, which will include a system backup. It is possible that in an organization the size of NYPD that the ball got dropped, lost, hardware failure, you name name it. However, that is doubtful, especially after 9/11. Surely, after 9/11 and Hurricane Sandy they don't do regular backups, rotate them off-site, and make this backup part of a Disaster Recover Plan. However, if they are lacking in this area, hopefully, they will get a swift kick in the pants and get with the process. Ready? 1, 2, 3,... backup and go!