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Privacy Issues Delay State Participation In Antiterrorism Database

One of the earliest post-9/11 attempts at intergovernmental data sharing appears to be running aground as various states find that privacy, data security, and cost concerns outweigh the benefits of state-of-the-art criminal-tracking and -identification technology. Georgia and Utah are the most recent defectors. Both are charter members of the Multistate Antiterrorism Information Exchange, known as Project Matrix, which lets law-enforcement agencies share criminal-history, driver's-license, vehicle-registration, and other data to prevent terrorism. Gov. Olene Walker put a hold on Utah's participation Jan. 29 and formed a committee to assess the security and social implications. Georgia pulled out the next day. They join Alabama, Kentucky, Louisiana, Oklahoma, Oregon, and South Carolina, which have pulled out in the last six months. Six of the 16 states originally invited to participate remain and are recruiting new members. . . .. One of the earliest post-9/11 attempts at intergovernmental data sharing appears to be running aground as various states find that privacy, data security, and cost concerns outweigh the benefits of state-of-the-art criminal-tracking and -identification technology. Georgia and Utah are the most recent defectors. Both are charter members of the Multistate Antiterrorism Information Exchange, known as Project Matrix, which lets law-enforcement agencies share criminal-history, driver's-license, vehicle-registration, and other data to prevent terrorism. Gov. Olene Walker put a hold on Utah's participation Jan. 29 and formed a committee to assess the security and social implications. Georgia pulled out the next day. They join Alabama, Kentucky, Louisiana, Oklahoma, Oregon, and South Carolina, which have pulled out in the last six months. Six of the 16 states originally invited to participate remain and are recruiting new members. States have dropped out for various reasons. Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue raised questions in October about sharing driver's-license and vehicle-registration dataafter the state attorney general said state law prevents sharing that information. Project Matrix may make sense for homeland security, says Gib Heuett, assistant deputy director of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation's Crime Information Center, "but the public has to be able to live with it." Texas, like California, considered joining Project Matrix but officially decided against it last summer after learning it would cost $1.7 million a year for licenses to access the system. That's in addition to as much as $130,000 to build the infrastructure to become a node on the Regional Information Sharing Systems, a secure intranet that connects to a supercomputer hosted by a Seisint Inc., says Marshall Caskey, chief of criminal law enforcement for the Texas Public Safety Department. Texas and Georgia participate in the Criminal Information Sharing Alliance, which doesn't have Matrix's search capabilities but lets states manage their own data, Caskey says. "With Matrix, they're selling your data back to you." The link for this article located at securitypipeline is no longer available. . One of the earliest post-9/11 attempts at intergovernmental data sharing appears to be running agrou. earliest, post-9/11, attempts, intergovernmental, sharing, appears, running, agrou. . Anthony Pell

Feb 10, 2004 • Anthony Pell Government