CrimLaw

The Minnesota Chiefs of Police Association set up a "private" big brother network (never legislatively authorized) which has now been taken over by the State. As the article points out, it does not gather information, it merely transfers information from the department which gathers it to whichever department wants it.

Three disturbing things about this:

(1) It is not forwarding only information about convictions or charges, it is sending information about acts a department thought were "suspicious."

(2) It totally avoided legislative approval. This alone should be enough to shut it down. Setting it up as a "private network" and then "renting" it back to the government which is the only entity with a legitimate use for it is shady. The fact that it was done by those who fall under the executive branch of a government without legislative oversight smells really funny. One suspects that the police thought they couldn't get the funding and therefore went this route.

(3) A citizen cannot get a copy of the information about him which is being disseminated thru the network. The government may have the ability, the need, and maybe even the right to gather information about people but, absent a very compelling reason - which it should be the burden of the government to prove - the citizen should have access to his information as it is available to the government. And telling someone that a township 200 miles away has entered some info on him is pretty much the same as denying him the info; no self-respecting police force will give that information over the phone/fax and going in person the three or four times it might take (if you are lucky) to shake the information loose is not practical.