MOVE ALONG, NOTHING TO SEE HERE, CITIZENS: L.A. officials stop use of disappearing Google Chats, citing Palisades fire.

For years, Los Angeles city employees could communicate through Google Chat messages that were automatically deleted after 24 hours.

Even after the practice, which was sanctioned by the city, was uncovered last year by a community group and good government experts questioned whether it violated public records laws, city officials declined to stop it.

This week, after wildfires devastated Pacific Palisades, Altadena and other communities, the city abruptly changed course. All one-on-one and group Google Chat messages will now be saved.

The news was announced by the city’s Information Technology Agency on Tuesday in an email to employees. The city enabled Google Chat history “in response to user requests related to the citywide emergency,” the email said, referring to the wildfires.

The email noted that those messages would now be “subject to production in legal proceedings, public records requests, and internal investigations.”

Well, good: The legal fight over the L.A. fires is already here. What previous lawsuits can tell us.