Utah Enters the MATRIX

And former Gov. Mike Leavitt didn't even inform the state legislature, according to this Deseret News account. Full story also contains some decent background on progress in the MATRIX program. An excerpt:

Gov. Olene Walker…on Wednesday requested that the Utah Department of Public Safety provide her more information on MATRIX.
"It does appear to be something that began under Gov. Leavitt," said Walker's spokeswoman, Amanda Covington, who added, "Gov. Walker is very concerned about individual privacy, but she has been assured by the Department of Public Safety that is not an issue with MATRIX."
….
House and Senate leaders either had never heard of MATRIX or, if the name was familiar, had no idea that conservatives and civil libertarians had any concerns over the new, super-information network.
MATRIX ? Multistate Anti-Terrorism Information Exchange ? is an intranet database regarded as the nation's largest cyber-compilation of personal records. It is touted as an efficient crime-fighting tool that allows agencies to access information with just a nimble fingertip.
Searchable databases allow law enforcement agents to probe for people using Social Security numbers, dates of birth, addresses, property records, motor vehicle information and credit history. The information is collected by states and forwarded to a database in Florida, where a private company, Seisint Inc., builds and manages the database.
The program essentially cross-references government records from both public and private databases, putting together a dossier on individuals for use by law enforcement.

Comments

[Jason Ligon]

I forget, which pill am I supposed to take to make this go away?

[Swamp Justice]

The cyanide pill.

[John]

[inside joke for basketball fans]

I wonder if Officer Olden Polynice will be in charge of this.

[/inside joke for basketball fans]

Our state government can violate the 4th amendment rights of law-abiding citizens, but it won’t do anything about the organized child molestation in polygamist communities in southern Utah?

[Conor]

MATRIX? For the Multistate Anti-Terrorism Information Exchange? Shouldn’t it be “MATIE” — like a pirate might say?

[Dan]

Our state government can violate the 4th amendment rights of law-abiding citizens

Which 4th amendment rights were those, again?

The fourth amendment potentially applies to governmental attempts to collect new information on you, since the act of collection is potentially a “search”.

But MATRIX combines publically available information with information the government has already collected, into a single easy-to-use database. This is not a “search”, under the Constitution, any more than it is a “search” when two police compare the notes they took from witness interviews. Even if the act of searching the database constituted a “search” under the Constitution, the act of building the database would not.

Just because something is scary and potentially dangerous in government hands doesn’t mean it must somehow violate the Constitution.

[Bo]

These backronym acts of legislation make my skin crawl.

[MALAK]

Whatever became of the State Municipal Offenders Database System (SMODS) anyway?

[dj of raleigh]

> MATRIX? For the Multistate Anti-Terrorism Information Exchange? Shouldn’t it be “MATIE” — like a pirate might say?

[heather]

nice John; as a girl growing up in Utah, it’s nice to know someone noticed.