From jd@scn.org Mon Apr 26 12:48:02 1999
Date: Sat, 20 Mar 1999 15:05:40 -0800 (PST)
From: SCN User <jd@scn.org>
To: local-computer-activists@scn.org
Subject: "Search & Query" in proposed Transportation Budget

Meanwhile, Transportation Committee staff confirm that the Department of
Licensing -- Information Systems portion of the House Transportation
Budget includes funds to model "search and query" for integrated license
and vehicle records.  Consider New Jersey's experience with such a system: 

>FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
>Monday, September 8, 1997
>
>NEWARK, NJ -- The American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey said 
>today that it had filed papers asking the New Jersey Supreme Court to 
>review an Appellate Division decision allowing police officers to ran-
>domly check passing motorists' license, registration, driving history, 
>and criminal history information from computer terminals mounted in 
>patrol cars.
>
>Eric Neisser, Associate Dean at Rutgers Law School and a volunteer 
>lawyer with the ACLU-NJ, called the mobile data terminal database 
>searches "electronic roadblocks" that individual officers should not be 
>permitted to employ without some reason to suspect a particular 
>individual, or at least without some uniform standards and supervisory 
>control.
>
>The ACLU-NJ's arguments are raised in consolidated cases -- State v. 
>Donis and State v. Gordon -- involving two motorists who were stopped 
>by police conducting random checks on passing cars. Both motorists -- 
>Donis is latino and Gordon is African American -- were cited for driving 
>without insurance and driving while under suspension.
>
>The ACLU-NJ argues that the database information accessed through 
>the computer terminals is private, embarrassing, and often inaccurate 
>or incomplete, and that unfettered police access thereby raises state 
>constitutional privacy concerns. Further, the ACLU-NJ contends that 
>unregulated police access poses a significant risk of abuse, allowing 
>police, for example, to run checks only on minority drivers. 
>
>"New Jersey motorists should not be subjected to these database 
>searches at the whim of an individual officer," said Professor Neisser. 
>"If profiles of persons likely to be driving without a license are to be 
>developed, they should be done formally and with a sufficient 
>evidentiary basis, and they should be subject to review by the public 
>and by the courts to ensure that there is no discriminatory enforcement. 
>
>"We do not allow individual officers to randomly stop motorists to do 
>DWI checks, and we should not allow them to randomly check these 
>databases either," he added.
>
>If the New Jersey Supreme Court agrees to hear the case, it will 
>probably be argued in the spring. In addition to Professor Neisser, the 
>motorists are represented by Roger Martindell and William Slover in 
>Princeton.
>
>Copyright 1997, The American Civil Liberties Union

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