GovTrack.us describes its site as a “nexus of information about the United States Congress. GovTrack follows the status of legislation and the activities of your senators and representatives. ” The uniqueness of this site, which trumps Thomas, is the ability to monitor current and future legislation by keywords then receive it all in one RSS feed. And for those of you onboard with this must-have technology, you’ll appreciate ease with which you can keep an eye on your government.

legislation

The Internal Revenue Service has detailed some continuing scams with tax return fraud. Could this one portend an area of investigation for PIs?

Dishonest return preparers can cause many headaches for taxpayers who fall victim to their ploys. Such preparers derive financial gain by skimming a portion of their clients’ refunds and charging inflated fees for return preparation services.

From the Record Searchlight via the First Amendment Coalition:

Judge orders unsealing of school district’s sex harassment investigation of former superintendent
(Record Searchlight 2/17/05) — A Siskiyou County judge has dismissed the arguments of the high school district board here to keep sealed an investigative report into sexual harassment allegations against former Superintendent/Principal Bob Morris.

Washington State is awaiting the Governor’s signature on a bill that will require law enforcement agencies to preserve DNA evidence for future testing. It has some favorable provisions for the convicted.

- Eliminates the dates and deadlines established for convicted persons to request postconviction deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) testing.
- Requires requests for postconviction DNA testing to be submitted directly to the courts instead of the Office of Public Defense (OPD) and the county prosecutor’s office.
- Provides for indigent persons to obtain legal counsel in order to prepare and present a motion for postconviction DNA testing.
- Requires all biological material secured in connection with a criminal case to be preserved for a length of time as defined by the court.

The Massachusetts State Legislature is deciding whether to make university police records public records, as are municipal police department records.

The state DMV new computer system took public records out of the public reach.

The state attorney general’s office is concerned that a new Division of Motor Vehicles system aimed at streamlining traffic accident reports is making it harder for the public to see the reports.

The firestorm from the ChoicePoint blunder is fast moving through the United States Senate and state legislatures. Although the fraud, perpetrated by identity thieves, was instigated at least 6 months ago, the FBI did not direct ChoicePoint to cut off access to the illicit businesses at that time, which might have blunted this crime. It’s unclear whether any benefit will accrew to citizens from the FBI delay because the perpetrators appear to be individuals, or possibly organized crime, from other countries. [From eworld wire: “This past October, law enforcement officials suspected Russian mobsters to be behind a major identity theft racket in Brighton, Mass.”] Here are the current bills.

S. 29: Social Security Number Misuse Prevention Act

(1) IN GENERAL.–Chapter 47 of title 18, United States Code, is amended by inserting after section 1028 the following: “§1028A. Prohibition of the display, sale, or purchase of social security numbers…

S.115 Notification of Risk to Personal Data Act

(1) IN GENERAL.–Any agency, or person engaged in interstate commerce, that owns or licenses electronic data containing personal information shall, following the discovery of a breach of security of the system containing such data, notify any resident of the United States whose unencrypted personal information was, or is reasonably believed to have been, acquired by an unauthorized person.

S.116 Privacy Act of 2005

1) IN GENERAL.–It is unlawful for a commercial entity to collect personally identifiable information and disclose such information to any nonaffiliated third party for marketing purposes or sell such information to any nonaffiliated third party, unless the commercial entity provides–
(A) notice to the individual to whom the information relates in accordance with the requirements of subsection (b); and
(B) an opportunity for such individual to restrict the disclosure or sale of such information.

Search for state bills across all states by keyword. Here are some of the state bills pending or enacted this year related to identity theft.

The Los Angeles court index shows that a Olatunji Oluwatosin had the following charges filed against him in December. He was apparently arrested in October. The FBI conducted an investigation (one wonders when that started) on this matter but Federal charges have not been filed. Perhaps they’ll use Oluwatosin in state court to sweat out the greater toxins. The charges, please:
PC470. (b) Every person who, with the intent to defraud, counterfeits or forges the seal or handwriting of another is guilty of forgery.
PC532a. (1) Any person who shall knowingly make or cause to be made, either directly or indirectly or through any agency whatsoever, any false statement in writing, with intent that it shall be relied upon, …for the benefit of either himself or of such person, firm or corporation shall be guilty of a public offense.
PC530.5. (a) Every person who willfully obtains personal identifying information, as defined in subdivision (b), of another person, and uses that information for any unlawful purpose,… is guilty of a public offense, and upon conviction therefor, shall be punished either by imprisonment in a county jail not to exceed one year, a fine not to exceed one thousand dollars ($1,000), or both that imprisonment and fine, or by imprisonment in the state prison, a fine not to exceed ten thousand dollars ($10,000), or both that imprisonment and fine.

One law firm, Chitwood & Harley is hot to bring a class action suit against ChoicePoint but isn’t soliciting on its own website, but on this one.

A Bureau of Justice Statistics study on publicly funded crime labs reveals the extent of the work overload facing these institutions which are increasingly charged with the time and money consuming work of analyzing DNA samples. Read the study.

A typical laboratory in 2002 started the year with a backlog of about 390 requests, received 4,900 requests, and completed 4,600 requests.
Forty-one percent of publicly funded labs in 2002 reported outsourcing one or more types of forensic services to private labs.

Why can’t every police department have the same transparency with their public records as does the Gainesville, Florida PD? At their recently launched site, accident and crime reports are searchable by name or address. Allow pop ups from this site and get a pdf of the actual report, not just the index. [Thanks to Drizzle for his post.]

California Public Records Act and police reports related case citations (current to 1997) are here.