Private Investigation News: California Accountancy Board accusations online

"After two years of debate, a year of Watchdog posts and unilateral action by the Schwarzenegger administration, the California Board of Accountancy finally voted this week to post online detailed accusations against California accountants.

Accusations are official, public documents outlining the alleged wrongdoing of accountants but the board, which is charged with protecting the public from bad accountants, resisted posting the information online — even though all of the other boards and commissions under the state Department of Consumer Affairs already post them. In August,Brian Stiger, director of the department, became so frustrated with the Board that he unilaterally started posting the documents on the department’s website."
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Location Oakland, Ca | San Francisco, Ca | California - Private Investigator

Private Investigation News: Victims of ChoicePoint Data Breach to Receive Redress Checks

"An administrator working for the Federal Trade Commission is mailing checks to 14,023 consumers who were victims of ChoicePoint’s alleged failure to implement a comprehensive information security program to protect consumers’ personal information, as required by a previous court order. As a result, in the spring of 2008, an unauthorized person accessed its database and conducted unauthorized searches."

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Location Oakland, Ca | San Francisco, Ca | California - Private Investigator

Private Investigation News: Oklahoma court bars release of birth dates

"A court ruling that clamps down on the release of public employees' birth dates is disappointing and a blow for those who use the information to protect and benefit the taxpaying public.

The ruling Tuesday stemmed from an Oklahoma County District Court case that pitted The Oklahoman and the Tulsa World against the Oklahoma Public Employees Association. Both newspapers had filed open records requests involving the birth dates of public employees. The OPEA opposed the release as an invasion of privacy, and has said that the availability of such information could make employees targets for identity theft or other harm."  
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Location Oakland, Ca | San Francisco, Ca | California - Private Investigator

Private Investigation News: Does Snohomish have a public records request overload problem?

"Snohomish County leaders want help from state lawmakers to cut down the time and expense they spend responding to requests for public records, a concern they share with government colleagues in Washington and beyond.

The county receives thousands of requests each year from individuals, neighborhood groups, attorneys and reporters. Often, county staff will compile stacks of records that sit, gathering dust, without anybody coming to pick them up.

County Council responses to public records fill four metal file drawers. There's also a cart that holds the pending requests.

"I would frankly not be surprised to find out that there is in excess of $1 million per year being spent by this county in staff time," County Council Chairman Dave Gossett said. "The real challenge here is to comply with the legitimate need of citizens to know what their government is doing and to ask questions, with the tremendous amount of work that some of these very broad and repetitive requests create."

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Location Oakland, Ca | San Francisco, Ca | California - Private Investigator

Private Investigator News: Study: Multiple toxic victims receive less empathy than one

An examination of jury verdicts over the past decade involving people charged for exposing others to toxic substances, has revealed that the more victims are involved in a case, the less harshly the perpetrator of the crime is penalized.

Saltburn Gill
  © Copyright Mick Garratt and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence.

The study, which also included two experiments in the lab, is the first to show that the bias toward feeling empathy for a single individual versus many — known as the identifiable victim bias — causes people to make judgments based on emotion that are disproportionate to the severity of a crime.

“The inspiration for the study was the observation that we tend to focus an extraordinary amount of attention and resources to crimes that have a really small number of victims, and have a harder time remaining engaged to larger scale kinds of crime,” said psychologist Loran Nordgren of Northwestern University, lead author of the paper Aug. 25 in Social Psychological and Personality Science.

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Location Oakland, Ca | San Francisco, Ca | California - Private Investigator

Private Investigation News: New Hampshire Retirement System refuses court order

"The New Hampshire Retirement System is refusing to release the names of the state's top pension earners, despite a court order requiring them to do so.

Hillsborough County Superior Court Judge David Garfunkel ordered the retirement system on Sept. 2 to comply with a right-to-know request filed by the New Hampshire Union Leader for the names of the 500 state retirement system members who received the highest annual pension payments in 2009 and the amounts of these payments. Garfunkel wrote in his order that the state's right-to-know law, RSA 91-A, is clear."  
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Location Oakland, Ca | San Francisco, Ca | California - Private Investigator

Private Investigation News: Is data in GIS parcel map a public record?

"After losing a ruling in Orange County Superior Court, the Sierra Club is turning to the California Court of Appeal in an attempt to win no- or low-cost access to the County of Orange's Landbase parcel map system, which the public must currently pay thousands of dollars to get to.

The lower court on Aug. 9 handed down a final decision that granted Orange County an exemption from the California Public Records Act (PRA) when it comes to public access to the what is also known as the Geographic Information System (GIS) parcel basemap database.  


The county claimed its Oracle-based "OC Landbase" database is a GIS database, and that GIS databases are part of "computer mapping systems" and therefore, they are exempt under PRA Section 6254.9 that excludes software from the public record."
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Location Oakland, Ca | San Francisco, Ca | California - Private Investigator

Private Investigator News: Judge orders agency to release Idaho ranchers' addresses

"A U.S. District Court in Idaho ruled Monday that the public’s right to know outweighed personal privacy interests in a federal Freedom of Information Act lawsuit brought against the Bureau of Land Management by two environmental groups, according to court documents."
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Private Investigation News: Community Based Information System

"The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department and partnering agencies unveiled a nationwide, first of its kind database called Community Based Information System (CBIS) today at Sheriff’s Headquarters Bureau. This database is designed to combine crime, demographics, social service referrals, school dynamics and other relevant data. It is the ultimate information led policing system empowering law enforcement in making decisions and improving services. Sheriff Lee Baca stated, “This system has the capability to empower police agencies to effectively identify and assess problem areas, without regard to jurisdictional boundaries, just like crime.”

During hard economic times when departments are minimizing services, this tool will allow law enforcement partners to continue the ongoing fight to provide public safety by bridging the gaps between information sharing. “The CBIS provides real time intelligence between local, state and federal agencies that will allow us to combat crime together,” said John A. Torres, Special Agent in Charge, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, Los Angeles Field Division. “If this database can save one life, and I know it will, ATF will continue its collaboration with this project to ensure open lines of intelligence is being shared with all levels of law enforcement.”  
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Location Oakland, Ca | San Francisco, Ca | California - Private Investigator

Private Investigator News: Pilot study of cameras in court

"The nation's federal judges agreed yesterday to a pilot project that could televise some civil trials — 16 years after the judges ended a similar experiment.

Appeals court judge David Sentelle told reporters that many of the details remained to be worked out, but that cameras could not record the faces of witnesses or jurors. Sentelle also said either side in a lawsuit could keep cameras out.

The move by the policymaking body for the federal judiciary, the Judicial Conference, follows an aborted effort to have video recordings of the trial over California's ban on gay marriage posted on the Internet. In January, the Supreme Court nixed a plan by Chief U.S. District Judge Vaughn R. Walker in San Francisco to have cameras record the trial."  
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Location Oakland, Ca | San Francisco, Ca | California - Private Investigator

Private Investigator News: Workplace Violence: 25 Red Flags

"The following is a list of 25 red flag issues that may indicate increased potential for violence, however, this is not intended to be a comprehensive list. This information must be evaluated in combination with various other factors known about the person, including criminal history, various public records, personal behaviors, bizarre statements, and threats made (if any). Threat risk assessments should be made by security specialists, law enforcement agency, or psychologists with specific experience in assessing workplace violence. These items in various combinations are often red flags regarding characteristic behaviors of potentially violent and threatening employees:"
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Location Oakland, Ca | San Francisco, Ca | California - Private Investigator

Private Investigator News: Public can explore millions of FCC licenses

"The Federal Communications Commission today launched FCC License View, a tool designed to make FCC license management information more transparent and accessible to a broad range of users. FCC License View is the latest release by the agency's Data Innovation Initiative, a long-term effort aimed at reforming the collection, use, and dissemination of FCC data.

With this new tool, users from across private and public sectors can digest complex licensing information through a simple and easy-to-use online dashboard. FCC License View lets users digest snapshots of FCC license management data that are at the core of the agency’s mission. At launch, FCC License View lets users explore over 3 million total licenses, 2 million of which are active. FCC License View is available now at http://fcc.gov/licenseview."  
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Location Oakland, Ca | San Francisco, Ca | California - Private Investigator

Private Investigator News: Pennsylvania state police incident reports are not a public record, cout rules

"Incident reports filed by Pennsylvania state troopers do not have to be released to the public, Commonwealth Court ruled Thursday in a reversal of the state open records office.

The 6-1 majority ruling said the forms are covered by an exception to the Right-to-Know Law that allows agencies to withhold criminal investigative records.

The case involves a February 2009 request by the Potter Leader-Enterprise for a complete incident report about a fight in Potter County. Commonwealth Court found that the incident report did not amount to a police blotter, which are public record, and therefore did not have to be released."
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Location Oakland, Ca | San Francisco, Ca | California - Private Investigator

Private Investigator News: San Jose officials asked to overrule cops on records requests

"San Jose officials' willingness to overrule police on withholding records will get a rare test Wednesday, when a committee headed by Mayor Chuck Reed considers two such requests.

Reed, who campaigned on an open-government pledge, last year turned down a proposal by journalists, civil rights leaders and community members that would have called for automatic release of certain police records. The mayor and a narrow council majority agreed with law enforcement concerns that broad release could jeopardize crime fighting and privacy.

Reed did vow to consider requests case by case. But those cases have come infrequently in the past year.
Since the council's Rules and Open Government Committee in November released the 911 recording from the fatal police shooting of mentally ill Daniel Pham, there have been three appeals to the committee seeking to overturn a decision by city officials not to turn over records. Only one of those involved police, and it came from a company seeking computer dispatch crime data, which police said was overly broad."



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San Bernardino Sunshine Ordinance postponed

"A proposed Sunshine Ordinance aimed at facilitating public access to government records will not be considered by San Bernardino County supervisors today as originally planned. 

Supervisor Neil Derry, who along with his staff has spent the last year working on the ordinance, delayed consideration of the measure on Monday to reconsider language related to officials citing "deliberative process" as a reason for withholding documents and other records from the public.

Derry had initially promised to prohibit county officials from using "deliberative process" as an exemption to the state Public Records Act, but county attorneys argued that's outside the scope of the supervisors' authority."


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Private Investigator News: Online sites to backup your computer - for free

"In today’s digital world, our entire life — both work and home — are tied to computers. Hard disks are unpredictable and are prone to failures leading to data loss. Research shows that every year 43% of computer users lose valuable data.

The best way to hedge your data storage risk is to store critical data on the cloud. Cloud storage services offer paid monthly subscriptions either for unlimited storage or for hundreds of gigabytes of data."  
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Location Oakland, Ca | San Francisco, Ca | California - Private Investigator

Private Investigator News: Gov. Christie signs bill restricting public record fees to cost of copying

"Fees charged by state and local governments to provide public documents to the public will be lowered across New Jersey under a bill signed into law yesterday by Gov. Chris Christie.

The legislation prevents government agencies from charging residents more than the cost of copying to obtain public documents."

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Location Oakland, Ca | San Francisco, Ca | California - Private Investigator

NJ Lowers Fees For Obtaining Public Records

"New Jerseyans will now be paying less to obtain copies of public documents. Gov. Chris Christie signed legislation Friday that bars state and local governments and agencies from charging people more than the cost of copying the records."

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Private Investigator News: Plymouth, Massachusetts Registry of Deeds redacting Social Security numbers

Plymouth, Massachusetts Registry of Deeds redacting Social Security numbers: "The bad news is that millions of images at the Plymouth County Registry of Deeds need to reviewed and, if necessary, cleaned of any references to those ...
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Location Oakland, Ca | San Francisco, Ca | California - Private Investigator

Private Investigator News: ACLU opposes adoptee open records http://ping.fm/nzSxB

Private Investigator News: Third Circuit says that a warrant may be needed for tracking cell phones http://ping.fm/uTPP9

Nevada settles Able Services suit over Private Investigators Licensing Board investigation for $580,000

"Nevada has agreed to pay $580,000 to the owners
of a former credit screening firm who said their
business was ruined by comments from an
investigator with the Private Investigators Licensing
Board.
 
The Board of Examiners approved the settlement
Thursday with Hugh, Bret and Janice Lantz of Able
Services in Reno.
 
Able Services provided credit screenings for
landlords and employers. The state attorney
general's office said an investigation was launched
in 2003 after a citizen complained the firm also was
conducting background checks, which requires
licensing.
 
A federal court jury in Reno awarded the owners
$670,000 in March. A settlement was later reached
on appeal for $580,000."
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Location Oakland, Ca | San Francisco, Ca | California - Private Investigator

Employers Should Be Wary of Cheap or Instant Online Criminal Background Checks

"Numerous internet sites have sprung up in recent years promising cheap or instant background checks that deliver criminal information on anyone. These sites utilize a so-called “National Criminal database” and vendors of such databases typically claim to have compiled millions of records from every state so users can know if someone is a criminal at the click of a button. These databases appear to offer employers an instant criminal check at a very low price.

Although a multi-state records database can be a powerful tool when used by a qualified employment screening firm as part of an overall background check, anyone who thinks they are getting a real criminal check can be in for a rude awaking when they discover that such searches are far from the real thing. Applicants with criminal records can easily be missed, and people without reportable records can be incorrectly identified as criminals, both results carrying negative financial and legal implications for employers.

Anyone using these databases, especially for employment purposes, needs to understand the limitations and legal exposure associated with using them. If they don’t, employers may find themselves embroiled in litigation. Here are just some of the issues:"
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Location Oakland, Ca | San Francisco, Ca | California - Private Investigator

Maryland courts plan for nearly paperless document system

"Judges enveloped by mountains of paper, clerks pushing carts piled high with files and people traveling to the courthouse just to look at documents — all could become obsolete in Maryland, as the judiciary moves toward an electronic courts system.

"Right now, you go to court and you say, 'Can I see the file?' [Soon] there won't be a file," said District Court Chief Judge Ben C. Clyburn, who heads the e-court advisory committee. Instead, people will be able to view a virtual file online."

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Location Oakland, Ca | San Francisco, Ca | California - Private Investigator

Private Investigator News: Will Google Instant change how clients find you online?

"If there is one thing you can be sure of when it comes to the Internet, it's change. If you think you have it all figured out, you will be humbled quickly when the next big development occurs. This week's major development: Google Instant.

So what is Google Instant and how does it change the way clients seek attorneys?
Google Instant is a search enhancement that shows results in real time, letter-by-letter, as you type. For example, in the past, if a client was searching for a criminal attorney in San Francisco, they might have typed, "criminal lawyer SF," hit enter and then looked at the results.

Now as soon as they hit the letter 'C,' results begin to appear. For example, the letter c brings up a link to Craigslist. The same goes with the letters 'cr.' But as soon as the person entering the search gets to 'crim,' the results change. (The first link that comes up is to the television show Criminal Minds.) So now content is coming much faster to users because they don't have to finish typing their full search term. Certainly some users will type out full search terms, but many will let Google Instant suggest their search terms for them.
So what does all of this mean?"

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Location Oakland, Ca | San Francisco, Ca | California - Private Investigator

Private Investigator News: ACLU opposes adoptee open records

"People's jaws drop in surprise when they hear that ACLU-NJ opposes passage of New Jersey's Adoptees' Birthright Bill because the organization known for defending those whose rights have been abrogated is, in this case, taking an unexpected viewpoint. ACLU-NJ prioritizes an undocumented "right to privacy" of parents who relinquished a child for adoption over the (adult) child's right to her or his original birth certificate.

Why? The "right to privacy" for relinquishing parents intended them to be free from
public access to their personal information. Adoptive parents often received copies of the court decree including names of the child and birth parent. They have also been allowed by law to keep the child's birth name without permission from the original parent."

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Location Oakland, Ca | San Francisco, Ca | California - Private Investigator

Private Investigator News: Third Circuit says that a warrant may be needed for tracking cell phones

"A federal appeals court in Philadelphia ruled Tuesday that the government may need a warrant when trying to obtain phone records that show a person's location.

It was not a clear victory for privacy advocates, but it kept open a door that law enforcement had wanted to slam shut.

Kevin Bankston, a senior staff lawyer at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, said the appeals court recognized that there were circumstances that fall under the Fourth Amendment protection against unreasonable search and seizure."  
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Location Oakland, Ca, San Francisco, Ca, California - Private Investigator

PIbuzz: San Francisco Voter Registration Status Lookup http://is.gd/eStAz

PIbuzz: San Francisco Voter Registration Status Lookup http://is.gd/eStAz: "PIbuzz: San Francisco Voter Registration Status Lookup http://is.gd/eStAz"

Location Oakland, Ca - Private Investigator

PIbuzz: Lookup a Sonoma County criminal court case to get info about defendants and their upcoming court dates. http://is.gd/eUhr5

PIbuzz: Lookup a Sonoma County criminal court case to get info about defendants and their upcoming court dates. http://is.gd/eUhr5: "PIbuzz: Lookup a Sonoma County criminal court case to get info about defendants and their upcoming court dates. http://is.gd/eUhr5"

Location Oakland, Ca - Private Investigator

Connecticut gun permits are confidential, but should they be?

CT: Connecticut gun permits are confidential, but should they be?: "In January, Allan Minter began tracking gun crimes that involved multiple victims. He'd served on a task force on gangs in his north Florida town, and was intrigued by what he thought he might find."

Location Oakland, Ca - Private Investigator

Feds sue Arpaio to get access to jail, records

AZ: Feds sue Arpaio to get access to jail, records: "The U.S. Department of Justice filed an unprecedented lawsuit Thursday against the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office for refusing to provide full access to records and facilities for a civil-rights investigation."


Location Oakland, Ca - Private Investigator

Private Investigator News: Mug shots are a public record in Massachusetts

"Secretary of the Commonwealth’s Office has ruled that mug shots are not protected by Criminal Offender Record Information laws, a position that the Northampton Police Department disputes.

According to a story in the Daily Hampshire Gazette, Supervisor of Records Alan N. Cote sided with the Gazette in its effort to obtain a mug shot for a court story it was doing in May. Police had denied the request, saying that the photo falls under the protection provided for those charged with crimes under the law commonly known as CORI.

Northampton Police Capt. Joseph Koncas said Wednesday that his department still believes that mug shots are protected under the law, citing a similar opinion by the deputy general counsel for the Criminal History Systems Board. Nonetheless, Koncas said, Cote’s ruling is “set in stone” and cannot be appealed."  
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Location Oakland, Ca - Private Investigator