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Friday, March 12, 2004

Law - More on Multi-State Anti-Crime Databases

A Feb. 23th Indiana Law Blog entry was headed "The Future is Now: Chicago Police Create Massive Relational Database." You may access it here (or simply scroll down). I recalled the entry when I read this AP story in the LA Times today, titled: "2 More States Turn Against Massive Anticrime Database." But this is a different massive database. . . Some quotes from the LA Times story:

New York and Wisconsin are the latest states to pull out of an anticrime database program that civil libertarians say endangers citizens' privacy rights.

Five states remain involved in Matrix out of about a dozen that had signed up to share criminal, prison and vehicle information with one another and cross-reference the data with privately held databases. * * *

Known formally as Multistate Anti-Terrorism Information Exchange, Matrix links government records with up to 20 billion records in databases held by Seisint Inc. in Boca Raton, Fla.

The Seisint records include details on property, boats and Internet domain names that people own, their address history, utility connections, bankruptcies, liens and business filings, according to an August report by the Georgia state Office of Homeland Security. * * *

New York started questioning Matrix when several other states dropped out because of privacy or cost concerns, Rasic said. Alabama, California, Colorado, Georgia, Louisiana, Kentucky, Oregon, South Carolina, Texas, Utah and West Virginia have left or declined to join after considering it.

And here is an AP story dated Oct. 21, 2003 reporting that: "Georgia will not join a sweeping crime database that tracks personal details of even law-abiding citizens, Gov. Sonny Perdue decided Tuesday, citing cost and privacy concerns."

Here is the home of the MATRIX database; here is a map showing the remaining participants (NY was still listed when I checked it).

[Update 3/15/04] Wired News has this story today titled "Wisconsin, New York Unplug Matrix." And the NY Times has this lengthy story titled "Privacy Fears Erode Support for a Network to Fight Crime."

Posted by Marcia Oddi on March 12, 2004 09:32 AM
Posted to General Law Related