Georgia Kept Adding to Crime Database

http://www.officer.com/article/article.jsp?id=9113&siteSection=1 ^

[Stew Padasso]

Georgia Kept Adding to Crime Database

............

DICK PETTYS The Associated Press

ATLANTA (AP) _ In a crisply worded statement last October, Gov. Sonny Perdue said he was ending Georgia's participation in a multi-state crime database that tracks the personal details even of law-abiding citizens.

Yet several months later, the state still was pumping information into the database. Top Georgia law enforcement officials even attended a meeting of its members _ two weeks after Perdue's announcement.

State participation appeared to come to an end _ again _ on Friday when the administration, confronted with documents obtained by The Associated Press, said they were now pulling the plug for certain.

``We thought it already had (ended),'' said Dan McLagan, the governor's communications director. ``There was a miscommunication.''

Orders were given Friday to terminate the state's participation, he said.

The multistate database, known as Matrix _ short for the Multistate Anti-Terrorism Information Exchange _ combines records submitted by the participating states with 20 billion database files held by a private Florida company called Seisint Inc.

Launched with $12 billion in federal funds in a response to the Sept. 11 attacks, it has been billed as a speedy way for law enforcement agencies to find records.

Privacy rights advocates are concerned about the inclusion of information on people not accused of crimes, as well as over the scope of the data, which could include marriage and divorce records and even fingerprints.

Georgia law enforcement officials were interested in the project when it was initially proposed and provided state sex offender and prison records for the database.

But last October, Perdue said the state was dropping out of the database. His announcement came after state Attorney General Thurbert Baker ruled the state could not share driver's license records with the database unless state law was changed.

``The state of Georgia will not transfer any additional information to the company responsible for the Matrix database,'' Perdue said in a statement issued Oct. 21 by his press office.

``I have held serious concerns about the privacy issues involved with this project all along, and have decided it is in the best interest of the people of Georgia that our state have no further participation in the Matrix pilot project.''

But records obtained by the AP under a public records request in Florida show that five Georgia Bureau of Investigation agents, including Director Vernon Keenan, attended a Nov. 5 meeting of the Matrix board of directors in Atlanta.

Minutes of the meeting show that Keenan told other participants that Georgia planned to continue sending data to the system, even though that appeared to contradict the governor's earlier announcement.

``Mr. Keenan stated he clarified with the Georgia governor that the state is still participating in the project and is sending the data,'' according to the minutes.

Asked about the apparent contradiction, GBI spokesman John Bankhead said the agency asked Perdue's chief operating officer, Jim Lientz, how to proceed after the governor's Oct. 21 statement.

``We were told to continue as we had in the past but not with the additional data (drivers' licenses),'' he said.

McLagan said that was a ``miscommunication'' between Lientz and the GBI.

``We wanted participation to end immediately,'' McLagan said. ``We have clarified that with the GBI and they are terminating their remaining participation in the program.''

Still in the program are Connecticut, Florida, Michigan, New York, Ohio and Pennsylvania.

Utah's governor on Thursday halted that state's participation in the database. Gov. Olene Walker promised to look more closely at the project, which had been set in motion during her predecessor's administration, after the American Civil Liberties Union said the program poses a more powerful threat to privacy than its organizers acknowledge.

[sunshine state]

bump.

[cyborg]

as long as I'm not in the same group as ted kennedy!

[americanbychoice]

Hi again,
What most people don't realize is that databases have been around for over 30 years.
I am very familiar with data collected by Equifax etc. Whenever I hired someone, he/she was checked through the agency. Interesting stuff comes out.
Another database is MIB, also located in Atlanta. This Bureau is collecting data on medical information that will be accessed if you purchase Life Ins., Health Ins. , etc.
Whenever you go to the doctor and an Insurance claim is submitted, it is stored in the Database.
Those are private companies, not the Government. It seems to me that the Government could save a lot of money if they just get a law passed being allowed to access that data, rather than develop a duplicate system?
By the way, this has nothing to do with whether I approve of this or not. I am not voicing an opinion, so people don't write back and tell me about what an idiot I am for going along.
It is just meant as Information.

[aruanan]

It amazes me these articles don't get more comments.

That's because there are too many people who think a. that if everything is controlled then nothing bad can happen, b. that if everything is controlled it won't negatively affect them because they're not doing anything bad, and c. that even if whatever the proposed measure is doesn't fully control everything bad, at least it shows those who proposed it were sincerely trying. And, really, can we ask anything more than that people sincerely try or, at the very least, intend to do something ostensibly good?

All the while the poor bozos forget what the founding fathers said about the government as an untrustworthy servant--it is necessary for some things, but is certainly not to be given the run of the house.

It's been over two centuries since the founding of our country, but people still want to use mechanisms of societal and governmental power to further their own ends. That hasn't changed. But the level of naivete on the part of the masses seems to have grown. And with it have increased both the likelihood and scope of oppression when people in the government encourage the creation of truly dual-use mechanisms of control by stressing to the naive citizenry how safe it'll keep them from the bogeyman that threatens from without but says that they shouldn't worry about the possibility of oppression from the government types who are already here and who've designed the systems of control because this is the USA and their hearts are pure.

When there is only intent toward an evil end, but limited or no means to effect it, the threat posed by that end is limited or non-existent. But to the degree that a means is provided, to that degree the end is made more certain. The creation of these means of control, though, and their availability, together with constant factor of human corruption, vastly increases the likelihood of oppression. We may hear that "safeguards" have been put into place. Yeah, but when those doing the safeguarding are the very same folks who, after someone like Clinton was impeached, collectively got down on their senatorial knees before him because they--like Monica and others--judged that letting the matter--like his pants--drop was better for their own individual careers, you know that safety from abuse by government cannot be guaranteed by government.

Present day government at all levels has at its disposal an information and tracking system and firepower that makes anything used by the Gestapo and the Kremlin look medieval in comparison. The only reason things aren't as oppressive at the personal level as they were under the Nazis or Communists is not because the means don't exist but simply because no one has dared use them in a widespread, systematic way.

[babaloo999]

It is just meant as Information

To be used for good or not so good.
This is where someone says "if you've nothing wrong then there(their) is nothing to(too) fear".

[Prodigal Son]

Good comments. Thanks.

You'd still think this would be one of those fire-storm issues here at FR.

If it were gun control or immigration, you'd easily see two or three hundred comments.

[aruanan]

If it were gun control or immigration, you'd easily see two or three hundred comments.

Oh, it relates to gun control, just one step removed. Too many people have already been suckered into believing that the purpose of the Second Amendment was to make sure they could have a gun to hunt with and, maybe, protect themselves from crime.

[duk]

The one thing a government,(any size or from any time) hates, is a people who have the means to control the governing authority.

...that whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these Ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolishi it, and to institute new Government, laying its Foundation on such principles..

[aruanan]

...that whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these Ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolishi it, and to institute new Government, laying its Foundation on such principles..

And this leads back to the primary theme of the founders: government is to come from the consent of the governed within the context of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution; if those in office reject the will of the governed, they can be voted out of office and replaced with someone who will uphold and defend the Constitution; if voting out of office isn't sufficient to rein in the abuse by a government that has turned its back on the Constitution, then force must be met with force in order to reestablish a constitutional government that will ensure the peoples' liberty; and the credible threat of force inherent in the people is a deterrent to the sort of oppression that would make the exercise of force necessary.

As several founding fathers said, antedating by almost two centuries Mao's dictum about power being found in the barrel of a gun, an armed citizenry safeguards its liberty by making those in the government afraid to attempt to wrest it from them. And, like Tom Daschle, I'm truly saddened that so many nowadays look on this wisdom of the founding fathers, gained through immediate, practical experience, as a threat to the current state of affairs. But, if perceived as a threat, this only illustrates how far from the ideals of the founding the current state of affairs has drifted.

[4CJ]

Looks like Sonny's camp just keeps on keeping on.

It does seem like there is a disconnect between Perdue and his staff/party.

"We wanted participation to end immediately," McLagan said. "We have clarified that with the GBI and they are terminating their remaining participation in the program."

Should have never participated to begin with.