The Massachusetts Supreme Court is proposing new procedures that, if adopted, would curtail the available personal information in all court files. The court is accepting public comments on its Interim Guidelines for the Protection of Personal Identifying Data in Publicly Accessible Court Documents.

The document proposes redaction of particular personally identifying information in court filings.

Except as provided in these guidelines, a document filed with a court should not include a complete version of any of the following personal identifying data elements. Instead, the filer should redact information from any pre-existing document, or omit information from any document prepared for filing, so that the document includes:
(1) in the case of a social security number, taxpayer identification number, credit card or other financial account number, driver’s license number, or passport number, only the last four digits;
(2) in the case of a birth date, only the year of birth, rather than the exact day or month; and
(3) in the case of a name identified as the mother’s maiden name of a person, only the first initial of that name.

The Pennsylvania Treasury Department has launched a database of state government agency goods and services contracts. Search by any combination of contractor, contracting agency, contract amount or date range. This primarily includes contracts entered into or renewed on or after July 1, 2008. See the FAQ’s for database parameters.

The University of New Mexico is revising its policies on access to public records and disclosure of personal information. One of the additions to the list of public record information on University employees is job application, resume or curriculum vitae. The policy changes will be voted on at the August 2008 UNM Board of Regents meeting.

The Albuquerque Police Department has established a registry of gang members who have been convicted of a violation of the Albuquerque Anti-Gang Ordinance. As of yet, there are no convictions, but records will be in an alphabetical directory and include a photo, the full name, the offense committed, the date of conviction and a physical description.

The California Franchise Tax Board list of delinquent taxpayers (or should-be taxpayers) extends back to 1987.

“California Revenue & Taxation Code Section 19195 directs the Franchise Tax Board to publish an annual list of the top 250 taxpayers with liened state income tax delinquencies greater than $100,000.”

Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, New Mexico and New Jersey are among the states that are currently listing delinquent taxpayers, although some of these are just the top 100 taxpayers who owe the most.

Select a state Department of Revenue to locate other delinquent taxpayers lists.

Of all the harebrained ideas, the restriction of Wisconsin court records online is sure to be defeated in the legislative committee. The bill’s author claimed that Assembly Bill 418 would alleviate employment discrimination against people with criminal records. Keep an eye open for a revised bill that would limit access to those who can pay.

And even when state legislatures extend public records access - as the Ohio legislature did in the last General Assembly - confusion can lead to closure of records formerly open to the public. The Ohio court clerks are awaiting training on the Public Records Act, as the law requires, before returning access to court records.

A New Mexico judge agreed with a private investigator who brought suit against the state that the records of previous tax sales is a public record. Eric Griego had sought the Department of Taxation and Revenue records listing sales of property seized and sold by the state. The difference between the money made on the sale and the amount owed for taxes is supposed to be returned to the beneficiaries, who Griego located in his work as an heir hunter, but the agency had started denying his requests after complying for many years.

The abundance of state legislation restricting access to public records is depressing for open government advocates. But the head in the sand approach won’t preserve access, so here are some of the Bills under consideration by state legislatures.

New Hampshire

HB 269, An act prohibiting “pretexting” as a means of obtaining personally identifiable information, would invoke civil penalties for any use of pretexting to obtain any personally identifying information.

HB 686 would prohibit anyone from electronically tracking another person without that person’s consent.

HB 729 includes a prohibition on retaining or storing personal information on drivers’ licenses in an electronic form.

Arizona

Legislation introduced in Arizona aims to remove all victim information from police reports before they’re released to journalists, attorneys, private investigators or the public in general. SB 1286 states: “A victim’s contact and identifying information that is obtained, compiled or reported by a law enforcement agency shall be redacted by the originating agency in publicly accessible records pertaining to the criminal case involving the victim. “

SB1286 has other flaws as well. By requiring law enforcement to keep victim information out of public records (instead of redacting or blacking out the information when appropriate), the bill could force police agencies to spend millions of dollars to install new computer software and to redesign reports in order to create two sets of documents — one for public release and one for the criminal justice system to operate fairly.

California

California State Sen. Ron Calderon has introduced SB 690, legislation that was expected to allow District Attorneys to release personal information on arrestees and parolees, which an Attorney General Opinion had said violated the right to privacy. Unfortunately the bill appears to have become restrictive to the point that private investigators and the public might have more difficulty obtaining police reports under the California Public Records Act.

Notwithstanding any other law, a local agency may, in response to a written request made pursuant to Section 6253 of the Government Code, provide information from a local summary criminal history, if the person making the request declares under penalty of perjury that the request is made for a scholarly or journalistic purpose and the release of the information would enhance public safety, the interest of justices, or the public’s understanding of the justice system.

California Assemblymember Dave Jones has submitted AB 1168, a bill regulating public records which contain social security numbers.

The California Public Records Act requires state and local agencies to make their records available for public inspection unless a record is exempt from disclosure. The act exempts from disclosure, among others, any record that is a personnel, medical, or similar file the disclosure of which would constitute an unwarranted invasion of personal privacy.
This bill would provide that, notwithstanding these provisions, a local agency shall not disclose to the public any record that is required to be open to the public by any provision of law if that record displays more than the last four digits of any social security number.

SB 216 would allow only the last 4 digits of a judgment debtor’s social security number to appear on public records. SB 644 is similar.

A vague bill, AB 703 requires that records containing social security numbers be destroyed.

Last year’s failed bill, SB 1666, has returned in the form of SB 328, Personal Information: Prohibited Practices.

The bill would also prohibit any person, as defined, from, among other things, obtaining or attempting to obtain, or causing or attempting to cause the disclosure of, personal information about a customer or employee contained in the records of a business through specified methods, such as by making false, fictitious, or fraudulent statements or representations, with specified exceptions.

New Mexico

Two bills at the state legislature would make private records that are currently public. New Mexico publicly-owned utilities must provide copies of all its records, under current law, but the presumption of openness that has characterized the release of government records shifting toward closure.

One proposed law, HB 279, from Rep. Jeff Steinborn, D-Las Cruces, would prohibit the disclosure of consumers’ nonpublic personal information.

Another bill, House Bill 1027 from Rep. Patty Lundstrom, D-Gallup, would exempt from the right to inspect public records any law enforcement record of “individuals accused but not charged with a crime,” discharge papers of a veteran and “the residential addresses of customers of municipal or county utilities.”

Is your state government proposing similar legislation?

The U.S. Department of Education Web site provides links to each state’s Department of Education, and to private sites that have education related tools. Locate school names and addresses at the Standard and Poors site, SchoolMatters. Search by school or district name, city, state or zip code.

The National Center for Education Statistics has a school locator that includes colleges and public libraries. View school districts and plot Census demographics from 1990 and 2000 on state maps.

Some state Department of Education Web sites include a personnel directory. The New Mexico directory, which can be downloaded, lists schools and districts alphabetically.

The Michigan Department of Education has a Teacher Certification Verification database.

Find the status of a Teacher Certification application in Pennsylvania or New Jersey by SSN.

Pennsylvania’s HB1746, which is now the law, makes law enforcement and criminal court records of a juvenile available to the public if the accused was over 14 years old at the time of the offense, and the crime would have been considered a felony if committed by an adult.

The U.S. Virgin Islands Recorder of Deeds index is online for documents recorded September 1, 1999 through June 14, 2006. Images of the documents can be purchased at the site.

The First Amendment Center carried an AP report that the New Mexico State Police have changed their policy on public access to arrest logs.

The New Mexico State Police office in Santa Fe has stopped providing the names and charges of those arrested in a daily log for public review.

Capt. Manny Gutierrez, commander of the district that includes Santa Fe, San Miguel, Los Alamos and Sandoval counties, said an arrest log isn’t required by law, and his staff is too busy to provide it.

“Within the last few months, we’ve decided that we are not going to provide that information. … All we’re really required to do is provide access to the desk logs,” Gutierrez said.

Neither the arrest log — a list of people arrested — nor the desk log — a chronological account of the date, officer, location and disposition of each police call — are required by the state Inspection of Public Records Act.

Search the New Mexico Driving While Under the Influence Database of convictions that have been reported to the Dept. of Motor Vehicles. Records are available from 2001 to the present and are searchable by partial last name, returning year of birth and date of conviction.