~ the ONLY way to track Federal bills ~

GovTrack.us describes its site as a "nexus of information about the United States Congress. GovTrack follows the status of legislation and the activities of your senators and representatives. " The uniqueness of this site, which trumps Thomas, is the ability to monitor current and future legislation by keywords then receive it all in one RSS feed. And for those of you onboard with this must-have technology, you'll appreciate ease with which you can keep an eye on your government.



legislation

~ private investigators take on tax preparers? ~

The Internal Revenue Service has detailed some continuing scams with tax return fraud. Could this one portend an area of investigation for PIs?

Dishonest return preparers can cause many headaches for taxpayers who fall victim to their ploys. Such preparers derive financial gain by skimming a portion of their clients' refunds and charging inflated fees for return preparation services.

~ California Judge requires school district to unseal sex harassment report ~

From the Record Searchlight via the First Amendment Coalition:

Judge orders unsealing of school district's sex harassment investigation of former superintendent
(Record Searchlight 2/17/05) -- A Siskiyou County judge has dismissed the arguments of the high school district board here to keep sealed an investigative report into sexual harassment allegations against former Superintendent/Principal Bob Morris.

~ Washington state may require DNA testing ~

Washington State is awaiting the Governor's signature on a bill that will require law enforcement agencies to preserve DNA evidence for future testing. It has some favorable provisions for the convicted.

- Eliminates the dates and deadlines established for convicted persons to request postconviction deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) testing.
- Requires requests for postconviction DNA testing to be submitted directly to the courts instead of the Office of Public Defense (OPD) and the county prosecutor's office.
- Provides for indigent persons to obtain legal counsel in order to prepare and present a motion for postconviction DNA testing.
- Requires all biological material secured in connection with a criminal case to be preserved for a length of time as defined by the court.

~ will Massachusetts make university police records public?

The Massachusetts State Legislature is deciding whether to make university police records public records, as are municipal police department records.

~ North Carolina AG rules police reports are public record ~

The state DMV new computer system took public records out of the public reach.

The state attorney general's office is concerned that a new Division of Motor Vehicles system aimed at streamlining traffic accident reports is making it harder for the public to see the reports.

~ front burner legislation impacts private investigators and every industry that needs information ~

The firestorm from the ChoicePoint blunder is fast moving through the United States Senate and state legislatures. Although the fraud, perpetrated by identity thieves, was instigated at least 6 months ago, the FBI did not direct ChoicePoint to cut off access to the illicit businesses at that time, which might have blunted this crime. It's unclear whether any benefit will accrew to citizens from the FBI delay because the perpetrators appear to be individuals, or possibly organized crime, from other countries. [From eworld wire: "This past October, law enforcement officials suspected Russian mobsters to be behind a major identity theft racket in Brighton, Mass."] Here are the current bills.

S. 29: Social Security Number Misuse Prevention Act

(1) IN GENERAL.--Chapter 47 of title 18, United States Code, is amended by inserting after section 1028 the following: ``§1028A. Prohibition of the display, sale, or purchase of social security numbers...

S.115 Notification of Risk to Personal Data Act

(1) IN GENERAL.--Any agency, or person engaged in interstate commerce, that owns or licenses electronic data containing personal information shall, following the discovery of a breach of security of the system containing such data, notify any resident of the United States whose unencrypted personal information was, or is reasonably believed to have been, acquired by an unauthorized person.

S.116 Privacy Act of 2005

1) IN GENERAL.--It is unlawful for a commercial entity to collect personally identifiable information and disclose such information to any nonaffiliated third party for marketing purposes or sell such information to any nonaffiliated third party, unless the commercial entity provides--
(A) notice to the individual to whom the information relates in accordance with the requirements of subsection (b); and
(B) an opportunity for such individual to restrict the disclosure or sale of such information.

Search for state bills across all states by keyword. Here are some of the state bills pending or enacted this year related to identity theft.

The Los Angeles court index shows that a Olatunji Oluwatosin had the following charges filed against him in December. He was apparently arrested in October. The FBI conducted an investigation (one wonders when that started) on this matter but Federal charges have not been filed. Perhaps they'll use Oluwatosin in state court to sweat out the greater toxins. The charges, please:
PC470. (b) Every person who, with the intent to defraud, counterfeits or forges the seal or handwriting of another is guilty of forgery.
PC532a. (1) Any person who shall knowingly make or cause to be made, either directly or indirectly or through any agency whatsoever, any false statement in writing, with intent that it shall be relied upon, ...for the benefit of either himself or of such person, firm or corporation shall be guilty of a public offense.
PC530.5. (a) Every person who willfully obtains personal identifying information, as defined in subdivision (b), of another person, and uses that information for any unlawful purpose,... is guilty of a public offense, and upon conviction therefor, shall be punished either by imprisonment in a county jail not to exceed one year, a fine not to exceed one thousand dollars ($1,000), or both that imprisonment and fine, or by imprisonment in the state prison, a fine not to exceed ten thousand dollars ($10,000), or both that imprisonment and fine.

~ more ChoicePoint litigation ~

One law firm, Chitwood & Harley is hot to bring a class action suit against ChoicePoint but isn't soliciting on its own website, but on this one.

~ the problem with public crime labs ~

A Bureau of Justice Statistics study on publicly funded crime labs reveals the extent of the work overload facing these institutions which are increasingly charged with the time and money consuming work of analyzing DNA samples. Read the study.

A typical laboratory in 2002 started the year with a backlog of about 390 requests, received 4,900 requests, and completed 4,600 requests.
Forty-one percent of publicly funded labs in 2002 reported outsourcing one or more types of forensic services to private labs.

~ another police public records success ~

Why can't every police department have the same transparency with their public records as does the Gainesville, Florida PD? At their recently launched site, accident and crime reports are searchable by name or address. Allow pop ups from this site and get a pdf of the actual report, not just the index. [Thanks to Drizzle for his post.]

California Public Records Act and police reports related case citations (current to 1997) are here.

~ all eyes on granny ~

Web cameras were once a fun way to communicate with friends over the internet but a few high visibility deaths at the hands of nannys lead parents to install electronic eyes. The discussion has moved to the question of the legality of granny cams. The sponsor of a new Arkansas law withdrew his proposal to allow cameras in nursing homes because of privacy concerns. This argument appears to be a disingenuous one, put forward by the nursing home industry. Could it be that the nursing home operators don't want the cameras turned on them?

This got me thinking about the case law related to the use of audio and video recording devices in various circumstances. Here's one. Add other statutes in the comments section.

In USA V. Flash (that's the appellant's name), the 2nd Circuit determined that the 4th Amendment rights of the appellant were not violated when a confidential informant surreptitiously videotaped him, which lead to the appellant's arrest. If you invite them in, the cameras can follow.

It is firmly established that audio recordings, obtained without a warrant and through hidden recording devices by an invited guest, do not violate the Fourth Amendment. See, e.g., United States v. White, 401 U.S. 745, 749, 753 (1971); Lopez v. United States, 373 U.S. 427, 438–40 (1963).

This site collects news stories on video voyurism. New Jersey apparently allows hidden videotaping of house guests. Workplace video recording has its own set of restrictions. Here's the Privacy and Security Law Report list on prospective videotaping legislation. This lawyer gives an expansive analysis of and citations to case law on workplace videotaping.

Today's New York Times (registration site) has an explorative piece on the common and innovative uses of webcams, and their unintended consequences. Through Google you can find thousands of amateur live video in people's homes.

The Yankee Group, a market research firm, estimates that as many as 13 percent of American households have a Webcam attached to one of their computers, often sitting on top of a monitor in a living room or a bedroom. Like each Web page, each camera on the Internet has an address, and unless the cameras have been concealed behind software firewalls, their addresses make them specifically searchable and identifiable. A Google search one day last week indicated more than 10,000 such Web cameras, showing everything from bedrooms and living rooms to coin-operated laundry businesses and shoe stores to plasma reactors and mountain ranges. (Some of the cameras required passwords for access to the video.)
Other video sources are mostly security cameras that have been fed onto the Net, either deliberately to make them available to the public, like traffic or weather cams, or simply because putting the camera online was the easiest way to get the video signal into the building's security office.

~ public records poll tax ~

What do you call it when government agencies require ID, a written letter, the permission of the county attorney and a five day wait to see a public record? This Florida County is finding themselves on the wrong side of the law.

They underscored that the common practice of requiring that public-records requests must be in writing and having these requests approved by the County Attorney Ron Mowrey is both illegal and time-consuming.
In a telephone interview with the Tallahassee Democrat before the meeting, First Amendment Foundation director Adria Gonzalez agreed. The proposed policy "is very problematic," she said. Requiring identification and a telephone number on a written request to obtain public documents are not in compliance with Florida law.

~ business marketing for investigators ~

This morning, West Coast time, about 60 investigators participated in a telephone seminar with marketing guru Nader Anise. This was a fast-paced presentation packed with strategies for getting and keeping attorney clients. And not just building loyalty but giving them the incentives to become active referral agents for us. Here are some of your emails.

Dear Tamara,
I wanted to drop you a quick note and thank you for putting on the seminar today. I must admit that I was reluctant and I did not expect to get much out of it. But I am happy to say that I was wrong. I found it to be very interesting and give me some great ideas on marketing.Chuck McLaughlin

That was a great conference call!!! Not only was it informative, it gave me confidence that I'm on the right track!!!! Ken Childs

Hi Tamara,
I thoroughly enjoyed the informative seminar. Thank you so much for spreading the word and inviting us all to share in this knowledge. Kelley Alves

~ so called private intelligence agencies ~

Patrick Leahy (D-VT) is on the warpath to "examine" the companies that own databases of personal information.

Leahy is calling for a series of hearings before the Senate Judiciary Committee to examine the privacy, security and civil liberty implications of recent trends in information technology, including the creation of digital dossiers on individuals and the sale of personal data to the government as these enhanced information-gathering technologies continue to emerge.

The feds could get greedy and make the private vendors (which they use extensively) accessible only to government agencies. Remember voter registration, motor vehicle and credit report records?

Rob, a North Dakota private investigator, is blogging over at sayanythingblog.com. He posted the NCISS press release and I made some further comments about ChoicePoint.

~ bring your attorneys into the blogosphere ~

My other blog, Investigate THIS ! is directed at attorneys but you will probably find items of value. Some subscribers to PI News Link are including site content in their client newsletters. You may find other news of note here to include. If you copy content into your own newsletters, please enclose in quotations and give a full attribution, with a site link.

copyright in the blogosphere

~ public records news site ~

Drizzle your way to this site that posts a topical roundup, with links to stories on public records.

public records in the blogosphere

~ popular newsfeeds ~

Go to the sites that have listings of the RSS feeds for your general interest and technology news.

technology news in the blogosphere

~ California consumer notification law ~

California Security Breach Information Act 1386 (SB 1386) is codified in Section 1798.29 of the Civil Code. The language is convoluted.

1798.29. (a) Any agency that owns or licenses computerized data that includes personal information shall disclose any breach of the security of the system following discovery or notification of the breach in the security of the data to any resident of California whose unencrypted personal information was, or is reasonably believed to have been, acquired by an unauthorized person. [emphasis is mine.]

Tell me how you interpret this section. One of the terms of disclosure appears to be that an agency is required to disclose a breach following notification of a breach, yes? Well, that seems to have been ChoicePoint's way out of early action on this matter.

SearchCIO.com has a shorthand guide to compliance with this law.

Link to the various privacy regulations that affect the private investigator industry. The unsightly list of disclosures of breaches is detailed here.

Privacydigest links to articles on the irony of ChoicePoint's failure to do its own due diligence. Q Daily News debunks the notion the ChoicePoint is a victim, that the site was not hacked. The Washington Post has a background piece on the company.

Mark Rasch was interviewed in Bank Systems and Technology and pointed out the sloppiness in ChoicePoint's information management: "[The criminals] were literally going through tens of thousands of background checks. That should have been a trigger that they weren't just doing a background check - they were generating a database of personal information."

[Thanks to Roy Wilkinson for directing me toward searchCIO.]

privacy in the blogosphere

~ aviation news and incidents ~

The findarticles.com web search returns current and historical aviation accidents and incidents reports for free that are fee-based at the site of origin, Aviation Today. I did an advanced search with the terms "accidents and incidents", limited by date range. See the result. Conversely, the Aviation Today website charges a fee for the search results. Their site also has free content on various aviation topics and news.

~ keeping current on RFID ~

The world's RFID authority, so they say. The RFID Journal is packed with articles, news and discussion on the applications of this expanding technology. An upcoming online conference features Tom Ridge.

RFID in the blogosphere

~ news junkies please apply ~

The folks at Sidewalk Theory are building a resource bank listing newspapers with RSS feeds. If you're a news junkie but don't have the time to read through many papers to find the few topical gems among the mere stones get yourself a newsreader. Try a free web based one and find out what the news buzz is all about. [Thanks to beSpacific for directing me to Sidewalk Theory.]

newspapers in the blogosphere

~ government records are ours, aren't they? ~

The Better Government Association and Investigative Reporters and Editors have teamed up to analyze the state of the union on open government and access to public records. Each state is ranked for their responsiveness to in five areas.

The procedural criteria measure (1) the amount of time a public agency or department has to respond to a citizen's request for a public document; (2) the process a citizen must go through to appeal the decision of an agency to deny the request for the public record; and (3) whether an appeal is expedited when it reaches the court system.
The penalty criteria weigh (1) whether the complaining party, upon receiving a favorable judgment in court, is awarded attorney fees and costs; and (2) whether the agency that has wrongfully withheld a record is subject to any civil or criminal punishment.

No state received an "A"; California got a "C-".

"Our survey also found that journalists believe that the cost of litigation is a deterrent to fighting improper FOI refusals (8:1), that public officials would not be held accountable for violations (6:1), and that important information goes unpublished as a result of weak state level FOI laws (2:1). " The study, understandably, calls for strengthening of the state FOI laws.

public records in the blogosphere

~ when did the FBI know? ~

The MSNBC account of the unauthorized intrusion into the Choicepoint database is all over the news. I'm puzzled how 30,000 letters could be sent to California residents noting the possible compromise of personal data stored on the Choicepoint databases and only one news outlet reported it. The FBI website has a shrouded reference to a commercial email service on which there was a potential compromise to the FBI emails. MSNBC previously reported on the access to bank computers by hackers.

But the Choicepoint scenario sounds much more businesslike. "50 fake companies had been set up and then registered with ChoicePoint to access consumer data ..." Apparently in 2000 ChoicePoint had a problem with Pennsylvania DMV records being sold to third parties.

One's imagination doesn't have to wander very far to gather a sense of the renewed firestorm that could alight on Capital Hill.

~ a databank of student photographs ~

A social networking site for university staff. faculty and students allows site participants (anyone able to reply to a confirming email at a university domain) to access any photographs and personal information posted at Thefacebook.

"You can use Thefacebook to: • Search for people at your school • Find out who is in your classes • Look up your friends' friends • See a visualization of your social network" Read an article

~ update on the PubMed database ~

For every database there seems to be a search engine that expands its usability. Along comes HubMed, the clean interface to the popular PubMed database. Added features include RSS feeds for articles and links to other databases that include your search terms.

~ RFID used to keep track of your movements ~

The first school district in California to implement RFID (radio frequency identification devices) to track student movements is in Yuba City. Apparently, the motive for the various school districts around the country is money, since the dollars distributed to schools is based on attendance.

~ database of folk medicine ~

Find out about the attributes of the various medicinal treatments your criminal defense clients were subject to as children, at the UCLA Online Archive of American Folk Medicine.

~ even attorneys go to the dark side ~

This is not the Los Angeles Police Department Ramparts scandal but heads are rolling in San Bernardino County, California where the Public Defender's Office has shown itself to be a bit lax in its hiring practices. It seems that Public Defender John Roth hired an attorney who had a criminal conviction for soliciting work from jail inmates. These are desperate times. News report here and here. [posting suggestion from R.A. Nosek Investigations]

Read what law enforcement executives say about the Ramparts area Los Angeles Police Department corruption investigation. Read and listen to the 2002 National Public Radio report.

~ failing to serve indigent defendants ~

The Standing Committee on Legal Aid and Indigent Defendants (SCLAID) of
the American Bar Association (ABA), produced a report, Gideon’s Broken Promise: America’s Continuing Quest for Equal Justice, based on testimony at public hearings held in 2003.

Recommendations for improving the systems for indigent defense are detailed in the report. The conclusions arrived at by the Committee:

• Forty years after Gideon v. Wainwright, indigent defense in the United States remains in a state of crisis, resulting in a system that lacks fundamental fairness and places poor persons at constant risk of wrongful conviction.

• Funding for indigent defense services is shamefully inadequate.

• Lawyers who provide representation in indigent defense systems sometimes violate their professional duties by failing to furnish competent representation.

• Lawyers are not provided in numerous proceedings in which a right to counsel exists in accordance with the Constitution and/or state law. Too often, prosecutors seek to obtain waivers of counsel and guilty pleas from unrepresented accused persons, while judges accept and sometimes even encourage waivers of counsel that are not knowing, voluntary, intelligent, and on the record.

• Judges and elected officials often exercise undue influence over indigent defense attorneys, threatening the professional independence of the defense function.

• Indigent defense systems frequently lack basic oversight and accountability, impairing the provision of uniform, quality services.

• Efforts to reform indigent defense systems have been most successful when they involve multi-faceted approaches and representatives from a broad spectrum of interests.

• The organized bar too often has failed to provide the requisite leadership in the indigent defense area.

• Model approaches to providing quality indigent defense services exist in this country, but these models often are not adequately funded and cannot be replicated elsewhere absent sufficient financial support.

~ marketing your private investigations business ~

Here's an opportunity to hear free marketing advise offered by a marketing guru who is also an attorney, from the comfort of your office. This is a teleseminar. You must register to participate and get the details on the telephone link.

Title: “Top 8 Ways To Build Your P.I. Business”
Date: Wednesday, February 23, 2005
Time: 10:00 a.m. PST, 11:00 a.m. MST, 12:00 p.m. CST, 1:00 p.m. EST
Duration: 60 minutes
Who can call? Private Investigators only
Free registration: http://www.privateeyemarketing.com/

~ recording telephone communication ~

A good collection of resources on the legality of audio recording of telephone conversations is at the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press site. They include a state-by-state summary and a list of case citations. The enforcement of the law is conditional. Remember Linda Tripp, whose indictment was dropped by Maryland prosecutors.

The FCC has its own words of wisdom on the legality of tape recorded telephone calls. Their statement on interstate phone communication cuts to the chase. The complete list of the current FCC telephone fact sheets is here.

The FCC protects the privacy of telephone conversations by requiring notification before a recording device is used to record interstate (between different states) or international wireline calls. Interstate or international wireline conversations may not be recorded unless the use of the recording device is:
• preceded by verbal or written consent of all parties to the telephone conversation; or
• preceded by verbal notification which is recorded at the beginning, and as part of the call, by the recording party; or
• accompanied by an automatic tone warning device, sometimes called a “beep tone,” which automatically produces a distinct signal that is repeated at regular intervals during the course of the telephone conversation when the recording device is in use.
Also, a recording device can only be used if it can be physically connected to and disconnected from the telephone line or if it can be switched on and off.

~ Internet stalking ~

SafetyEd International addresses issues of child exploitation on the Internet. The site includes an extensive list of links on legal issues and California statutes related to stalking and harassment.

~ the mentally retarded as criminal defendants ~

The California Supreme Court, In re ANDERSON HAWTHORNE, JR., the Court was faced with the dilemma of reviewing a habeas petition of a mentally retarded man under sentence of death, as a new law (Penal Code 1376) was enacted, barring the execution of the mentally retarded. The Court notes, "By its terms, section 1376 applies only to preconviction proceedings. We issued an order to show cause to determine how to resolve postconviction claims of mental retardation. " Read the decision

Penal Code 1376 exerpt: a) As used in this section, "mentally retarded" means the condition of significantly subaverage general intellectual functioning existing concurrently with deficits in adaptive behavior and manifested before the age of 18. (b) (1) In any case in which the prosecution seeks the death penalty, the defendant may, at a reasonable time prior to the commencement of trial, apply for an order directing that a mental retardation hearing be conducted.

The Court concludes: "The new legislation makes no provision for cases in which the death penalty has already been imposed. The task thus falls to this court to formulate appropriate procedures for resolving post conviction claims. "

Search and read all Court opinions issued in the last 120 days.

~ tailor your website keywords ~

Take a free preliminary tour of the search engine optimization tool Wordtracker. List various keywords that describe your service to discover how many times those terms have been searched.

~ sealing criminal records ~

I'm sniffing around for a trend. Will those who are found guilty of crimes be able to seal their records? Well, perhaps Illinois is leading the way. A new law goes into effect in June that will do just this. Don't just hold your nose, organize.

When Public Act 93-1084 goes into effect on June 1, former criminals may file petitions to seal records of certain offenses, including municipal ordinance violations, misdemeanors and some Class 4 felonies, such as prostitution and possession of up to 500 grams of cannabis. Among the crimes excluded from the legislation are drunken driving, violating an order of protection and any crime requiring sex offender registration.
To have records sealed, individuals must have been acquitted of an offense or had a conviction reversed. Convicted criminals are eligible if they stay out of trouble for three years after misdemeanor supervision or four years after completing a sentence, probation, parole or felony supervision. [Emphasis is mine.]

~ ID theft education ~

I hope those private investigators who are planning on attending the State of California's ID Theft Summit, Tuesday, March 1, will talk some sense with the attendees who have spoken negatively about private investigators. I'm thinking particularly of Mari Frank. I heard her studio audience presentation on PBS, working the scare tactic angle. She didn't recognize private investigators as having a valuable place in uncovering identity theft and protecting people from fraud. Just the opposite. We're lumped in with the quick-buck-meisters running wild on the Internet.

Now in the olden days, you really have to actually go to maybe get court records or do some other things to commit identity theft. That would take much longer. So, yes, there was identity theft. And there were people who were able to do that as a profession, people who were very smart about getting your information--people like private investigators, information brokers. Now they put that online. There are hundreds and hundreds of sites that you can go to. You don't have to spend a great deal of money or a great deal of time. It's transferred to you in just a second.

Read the whole transcript to get a sense for her approach.

The Office for Victims of Crime is having an online forum TODAY, Wednesday, February 9, on Identity Theft. The presenters are from the Identity Theft Resource Center.

~ business databases direct from your government ~

All 50 states have business related public records online, to varying degrees. Kathy Biehl at LLRX provides an updated summary of the source and types of records the county and state governments make available. She includes links organized by state.

While this is informative and conveniently located in one place, there's a gaping need in the field of free public records online searching: the public records search engine. Wouldn't it be a giant leap for investigator kind if we could simultaneously search within multiple public records indexes? This would be akin to the search mechanism provided by commercial services, such as that of Merlindata. The public agencies, their online indices and any search engines can't supplant the benefits of the online fee services.

But free is the future. As I wrote in an earlier post, there is one company that is in the infancy of developing just such a public records search engine. But the limitations of bandwidth keep the full possibilities just beyond our reach.

~ online health inspection reports ~

Health inspection reports are a public record but this Spring San Francisco County will post them online. Contra Costa County is also considering a similar move, primarily to pressure restaurants to improve their sanitary conditions. There's demonstrable evidence to support the effectiveness of this approach, as evidenced in the Los Angeles experiment, where health inspection reports have been posted to the Internet since 1998.

Many counties and cities have searchable databases of food facility inspection reports, including Denver, Santa Clara, San Mateo. Texas lists the inspection reports by category. A substantial list can be generated at searchsystems.net by doing an advanced search in the following way. Match All Keywords: Inspection; Match any keyword: Food Health Restaurant; Without keywords: Licenses.

~ free public record databases are the future ~

Read this post and all others at our current site:
PI buzz

There's an increasing trend toward offering public records indexes and documents, for free on the internet. Paradoxically, there's a parallel thrust to close or curtail access to some or all of the content in court, real property, voter registration, motor vehicle and other government records, either in the electronic form, or in hard files. In an earlier posting I wrote about the debate currently underway in Utah and in other states. New Hampshire and Oregon have recently opened previously closed adoption records. Everyday more government agencies are expanding the range of records on the Internet, which assist those of us who do people searching and background development on people and companies.

A new specialized search engine on the block, Pretrieve.com, aims to make the task of retrieving public record information more streamlined. Pretrieve offers the user the ability to simultaneously search by name, phone number or address across multiple free public record sites. It takes your search terms, goes to the site, enters the terms and returns a list of the types of data that might be available, based on the online records for that state.

Example: In the name search, I entered "Tamara Thompson", California. The first screen provides a phone directory listing of 10 different possibilities. The name search appears to be pulling from white pages residential listings. After I select the Oakland entry, I can retrieve targeted search results based on the correct Tamara Thompson. The records are categorized into folders with tabs named Criminal, Court, Financial, Professional, Local Info and Miscellaneous.

Pretrieve points the finger at free government Internet sources that may house your search terms. Here's a prediction. The aggregating of the public record sites and pulling the information to the user is the next big wave in the online public records world.

Pretrieve is the logical step beyond the service of searchsystems.net, which has done a good job of indexing links to the free government public records websites. But the professional searcher can't afford to get lazy. Neither of these sites, or any others that compile links, have a complete list. Always go to the website that generates the original data. Always use a search engine to find possible government sites that may have public records information which may not have been incorporated into any other web pages.

Pretrieve is a freshly minted company that hasn't yet cleaned up the glitches or added some of the most useful types of sites on which investigators rely. (Pretrieve plans to have the court indexes linked, in about 2 months.) But it's a product whose time has come. Watch for wildfires. You heard it here first.

~ more social security numbers scares ~

The Government Accountability Office report entitled, SOCIAL SECURITY NUMBERS - Governments Could Do More to Reduce Display in Public Records and on Identity Cards, was presented to Subcommittee on Social Security, Committee on Ways and Means, House of Representatives, in November 2004. Read the pdf report.

The GAO notes that public records with SSNs appear in many formats but mostly in paper records filed at agency offices. "Few state agencies make records with SSNs available on the Internet; however, 15 to 28 percent of the nation’s 3,141 counties do place them on the Internet and this could affect millions of people." [Emphasis is mine.]

The GAO survey of counties revealed "that more than three-quarters of U.S. counties hold at least one type of record that displays SSNs, which has implications for the 94 percent of the U.S. population that we estimate live in those counties." This is good news for information gatherers who need to locate people or verify their identity for employment background or litigation.

Interestingly, agencies collect and retain SSNs for some of the same reasons investigators rely on them: to verify identity and to cross reference with other records. The federal government has taken steps to remove SSNs from various identity cards and financial statements, which undoubtedly does reduce access to personal information that can be used by identity thieves. However, a simple utility bill that ends up in the trash, unshreaded, may provide all the leads needed for a nefarious purpose.

Additionally, it's doubtful that identity theft comes about through mining public records. The GAO concludes as much:

The continued visibility of SSNs in public records in virtually every corner of the country presents continued risk of widespread, albeit small-scale, identity theft. Since the public usually obtains such records in individual hard copies, the risk of SSN theft in large volume from public records may be small. [Emphasis is mine.]

I'd be curious to know if there are any legal cases citing an identified criminal conspiracy, in the form of an identity theft gang. In any case, like gun ownership, there are people who should be allowed to have them and others who should not. The public would benefit if privacy advocates and law makers recognized that private investigators are a resource in preventing and ameliorating identity theft, not a threat to individual privacy and security.

~ get-a-contract-with-the-federal-government database ~

The Federal government database of currently available contracts and the archive of documents related to contracting with the government are here.

~ disappearing personal information ~

The Utah Judicial Council is recommending that electronic court records continue to be stripped of personal identifiers such as names and address. A a local newspaper sees the recommendations as being more severe. Read the article. In reading the report, I gather that the committee's aim is to prevent private parties from aggregating and accessing electronically aggregated records which contain personal information.

One recommendation that affects debt collectors, private investigators and employment background companies is to truncate social security numbers.

Most of the identifying data about a party acquired by the courts serves the interests of others. The courts have little or no need for the data. We have recommended that the courts review the data recorded during the history of a case and determine how much is genuinely needed.

Of the identifying information that is required, the courts should make public a party’s name, address, date of birth, driver’s license number and the last four digits of a party’s social security number. This information is more than sufficient to protect against identity confusion. Admittedly, the risk of identity fraud increases. [Emphasis is mine.]

The report suggests a method for keeping the SSN out of public view but still available to the court. There's no special dispensation for individuals and businesses who need to verify identity through the social security number. Getting access to this could be burdensome for businesses, as they would probably have to get a court order.

The Utah report cites United States Department of Justice v. Reporters Committee For Freedom of the Press, to argue that aggregate personal identifiers unduly impinge on privacy interests because, 1. the parties to court actions expect that their personal information will only be used for the court's purposes and, 2. a "dossier" can be compiled from that which would only be found in individual files. But this case attends to the issues of criminal rap sheets, not other types of records which have previously been deemed public.

The social security number is the only means to associate a name with a specific individual, and to confirm this identity through name changes. It is the unique national identifier; names and dates of birth are very commonly shared but each person has her own social security number. This is our national ID card. And it's a good and proper tool to confirm background by employers, to collect on judgments, mitigate against fraud, locate people related to litigation, family matters, probate and many other legitimate purposes.

~ the hidden background of the powerful ~

I know this comes as a shock. So hold on to your hairpiece. A different set of rules apply to the rich and powerful than to the majority population. And it's not good. A more searing lens should be spotted on those in power but not according to Calumet City Illinois Police Chief Patrick O'Meara. Apparently, arrests of a mayoral candidate, a cop who made threats, and the arrests of the other mayoral candidate's son, were secreted away by the police department in a private file not available to the media.

"It's not like we are trying to hide anything," O'Meara said of the file. "What we don't want is someone who does not like (an employee) to walk into the records department and start handing out the report as a political move."

I see. It's public unless I, the Great Haji, determine that it may dirty the nose of a politician.

The news reporter makes no excuses: "Under Illinois law, police must make available to the media the identity of a person arrested and any charges filed against the person."

This begs the question, the challenge to the private investigator developing deep background. How can you get a public record if you don't know it's there and the agency denies it has it?