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Monday, April 10, 2006

ACLU Concerned About Information-Sharing System


Associated Press
      The American Civil Liberties Union says people should keep an eye on how police use a statewide computer system designed to let law enforcement agencies share information faster.
    Linx — for the Law Enforcement Information Exchange — is expected to go online late this summer in Bernalillo, Sandoval and Dona Ana counties. Five other states use such a database, and it's possible they could link in the future, said Mike Dorsey, special agent in charge of the program through the U.S. Naval Criminal Investigative Service in Washington, D.C.
    The database will help law enforcement agencies, but Peter Simonson, executive director of the ACLU in New Mexico, said it also will contain information about innocent people, crime victims, witnesses and minor traffic violations.
    "It is going to make available that information to every police department participating,'' he said. "We think that represents a significant threat to personal privacy.''
    U.S. Attorney David Iglesias, whose office is spearheading the program here, said it prohibits sharing information such as tax records, credit reports, purchasing patterns, motor vehicle records and other non-law enforcement records.
    Dorsey said the program is sensitive to privacy issues, adding, "Citizens need to understand that these are not different records than what police departments keep. These are not intelligence records.''
    Simonson said widespread access to public and confidential information creates the potential for misuse. In 2001, the Detroit Free Press uncovered 90 violations by authorized users who accessed a statewide database to track down ex-girlfriends or harass a woman.
    Linx lets officers type in a name, address or other piece of information, and the system makes available any reports from participating agencies pertaining to the information entered.
    Most law enforcement agencies will share what officers type into crash reports and citations and incident reports including names of witnesses, victims and suspects.
    Dorsey said departments and the U.S. attorney's governance board can determine which records are shared. Iglesias said individual departments then decide what level of access various officers have.
    Gov. Bill Richardson on Friday ordered state law enforcement agencies to make records available. That includes law enforcement records, but not personal information, from such departments as Parks and Recreation, Game and Fish, Taxation and Revenue and the Livestock Board, said John Wheeler, chief legal counsel for the state Department of Public Safety.
    Albuquerque's deputy police chief, Paul Chavez, said law enforcement already can get records from the agencies targeted for the database.
    "This just lets us do it at the touch of a button,'' Chavez said.
    Immediate access to information will allow investigators to learn more faster, find new leads and uncover criminal patterns beyond local boundaries, authorities said.
    "It will allow us to catch more crooks,'' Chavez said.

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