Miscellaneous

Sunshine Week: Is Government Transparency Possible Without Newspapers?

Posted on March 18, 2009
The shuttering of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer print version during Sunshine Week is a sad reminder of the trend in big city papers. Increasingly, they can’t afford to operate in paper form, and maybe won’t be able to in online-only versions — depending on how the dollars shake out...

Sunshine Week 2009 - State Reports

Posted on March 15, 2009
California lags, but Texas shines at the top of the rating of online access to government records — essential to a democratic system of governance and a core tool of the private investigator. Sunshine Week 2009 launched today with the publication of the survey ranking state governments’ online public records...

Sunshine Week 2009 Survey of State Government Information

Posted on March 14, 2009
The newspapers are getting a running start on Sunshine Week –the Sunday kickoff to a week focused on efforts by the media and government to cast a light on government operations– reporting the good and the bad on the state of accessibility to online public agency records...

Keeping Up With Crime

Posted on March 10, 2009
Surprisingly, I wrote about crime mapping only once in 2008. That was about the efforts to track and map crime incidents at universities and included some tips for finding online crime map sites. CrimeReports, which I wrote about in 2007, is still chugging along, now with about 150 participating police departments just in California, where [...

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Government Spending Transparency Databases

Posted on February 12, 2009
The governor of Alabama signed an executive order that creates an online database of all state government spending and legislators’ relationships with lobbyists. This will go online later this year, but many other states have already made available government spending, salary and revenue databases, often in a site dedicated to issues of transparency in government...

Facebook, Criminal Records and People Finders

Posted on February 12, 2009
A new feature has been introduced at the most popular social networking site, Facebook — which it’s calling Truescoop –, a name search that identifies people by their state of residence and date of birth and, for some, criminal record history...

This week in public records: California

Posted on February 06, 2009
A California appellate court has settled a public records case — the right of access to a Santa Clara County GIS parcel mapping database — in favor of the plaintiffs, the California First Amendment Coalition. The county alternately demanded an exorbitant fee to access the database, then claimed that it was protected for national security [...

This week in public records: Florida

Posted on January 30, 2009
The final report issued by the Florida Commission on Open Government Reform recommends how the State of Florida can make its government records more accessible to the public. The report should be read by anyone concerned with open government and the future of public records in Florida...

National Motor Vehicle Title Information System Database

Posted on January 30, 2009
The National Motor Vehicle Title Information System (NMVTIS) database is active now in 27 states. Check automobile titling information, including some historical theft data. This U.S. Department of Justice project was initiated to curb title fraud and the sale of junk cars...

This week in public records: Pennsylvania

Posted on January 29, 2009
Reversing a lower court, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled that some autopsy records should be disclosed to the public. Maybe the coroners will further open those records in the advent of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Right To Know Law, which explicitly places the burden of proof on the government for justifying why a document is [...

Real Time Tracking On Microblogging Search Engines

Posted on January 26, 2009
By now everyone whose discovered the Internet knows about finding background on people at two of the most popular social networking sites — Facebook and My Space. But you may not have ventured into the microblogging world of Twitter, where people are just as unguarded, albeit in smaller doses — messaging in less than 140 [...

Read Private Investigator Blogs

Posted on January 23, 2009
I’m partial, but didn’t it seem that PI buzz got a scant description in the list of private investigator blogs? Expand your reading, if you must, and take a look at the e-Justice blog posting, Private Eye Reading: The Top 50 Detective Blogs.

Texas AG Launches Charitable Organizations Search Tool

Posted on January 14, 2009
The Texas Attorney General has finally around to offering a service previously available in most other states: a charities online database. A search using the Texas Charitable Organizations Search Tool returns a summary of the organization, sometimes with a revenue graph, and a link to the IRS 990 forms...

Social Networking for Investigators

Posted on January 12, 2009
The widespread use of social networking sites is also engaging private investigators as participants — as I am on Linkedin — and as information gatherers. Law Technology News published my article, variously titled, “Research: Me, Myself & I:People can be unguarded on social networking sites” and “Due Diligence With Social Networks“...

Do Public Records Belong To the Public?

Posted on January 11, 2009
The Iowa legislature is chewing over the notion that open government records may be responsible for identity theft and should be restricted. The Identity Theft Prevention Study Committee met last month and developed a collection of recommendations, including redacting certain “personal information” — that fuzzy term has yet to be defined — in public records...

Think Twice Before Going Undercover

Posted on December 01, 2008
Who would have thought that creating a fake profile on MySpace (a violation of their user agreement) could lead to a criminal conviction? The recent verdict in the case of Lori Drew concluded that she was guilty of computer fraud for doing just that. Of course the verdict was influenced by the belief that the [...

So You Think You Know Google?

Posted on November 30, 2008
I did have one techie admit that he learned something new at the presentation I did for the Oregon Criminal Defense Lawyers Association. Their Sunny Climate Seminar is held every year in Hawaii, very painful… Almost as soon as I minted my PowerPoint, So You Think You Know Google? (see an edited version), Google released [...

Find Government Employees and Salaries

Posted on November 23, 2008
In the past few years, general circulation newspapers have furthered the cause of government transparency by providing searchable databases of government employees and their salaries. Although these are federal, state, county and municipal government public records the corresponding government agencies have not made these available at their Web sites...

Ohio Drunk Driver Database

Posted on October 02, 2008
A database of convicted drunk drivers is slated to go online by the end of 2008, hosted by the Ohio Department of Public Safety. Ohio’s SB 17 mandates the creation of an Internet registry listing personal information on repeat offenders. Read the press release that details the characteristics of the Habitual OVI/OMWI Offender Registry...

Texas AG Shuts Down USA Skiptrace of Colorado

Posted on September 28, 2008
The Texas Attorney General is employing various media - screen shots, video, press releases and court documents - to broadcast its recent shuttering of USA Skiptrace, AMS Research Services, Inc. and Worldwide Investigations, Inc. for selling consumers? private telephone records and impersonating those account holders...

Database of the Day: Homicide In Chicago 1870-1930

Posted on September 27, 2008
Northwestern University hosts this searchable database of homicides in Chicago that occurred between 1870 and 1930. The mandatory search field is street name, but many other criteria can be added. Read the description of this massive project, transferring handwritten records to a digital format...

California EMT Registry Created

Posted on September 26, 2008
Formal disciplinary actions against a California Emergency Medical Technician will now be available as a public record, thanks to AB 2917, signed by the governor today. AB 2917 will provide the public with with certification and licensure information and create an EMT registry, specified by Section 1797...

State Laws: Event Data Recorders

Posted on September 16, 2008
The National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL) issues topical summaries of each year’s state legislation that has become law. The NCSL report, 2008 Privacy Legislation Related to Event Data Recorders (”Black Boxes”) in Vehicles, will help private investigators stay informed of the legal parameters of the application of electronic surveillance and tracking of of others’ [...

University Campus Crime Maps

Posted on August 31, 2008
If you subscribe to PI buzz Alert you may have seen the link I included to UCrime, a crime information mapping site of recent crime incidents at universities. Search by address or date (2008 only) to see reported crimes plotted on a map, with icons distinguishing the type of incident...

This week in public records: Arizona Disciplinary Records

Posted on August 24, 2008
All disciplinary records of Arizona government employees become public records September 28, 2008. Arizona Revised Statutes adds section 39-128, Disciplinary records of public officers and employees; disclosure; exceptions. Release of home address, telephone number and photograph of people in certain job categories (law enforcement) is restricted...

Find Records of Disciplined Attorneys

Posted on August 23, 2008
Attorney disciplinary records are organized on the state level and, if online, are usually found at the state bar or state court. The court division that is responsible for investigating attorney misconduct may be called “Office of Disciplinary Counsel”, “Disciplinary Board” or “Disciplinary Commission”...

Database of the Day: Insurance Providers Receivership Information

Posted on August 09, 2008
Before your eyes glaze over, your head goes into free-fall, allow me to point you to the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) database of insurers who have been in receivership. This newly initiated project to get all state insurance commissioners to supply data on insurance providers licensed in their states, now contains historical data [...

Google Insights - Find popular search terms

Posted on August 08, 2008
What are the top 10 searches in the Google search engine of interest to private investigators? The new Google product, Google Insights, is a Web site optimization tool, or just an amusing time-waster, depending on your inclination. I searched the phrase “find my”, which returned top searches, listing, “find my ip” and “find my way” — [...

Database of the Day: Missouri Statewide Voter Registration Lookup

Posted on August 06, 2008
The Missouri Secretary of State now has a statewide Voter Information Lookup online. Enter the person’s first and last name, county and street name. If you’ve correctly matched that personal information, you have to select the correct street address, as you can see in this image...

Background Screening and Investigations - Book Review

Posted on August 03, 2008
Background Screening and Investigations: Managing Hiring Risk from the HR and Security Perspectives is a wide-ranging guide to the technology, resources, policies and procedures, and trends in employment screening. A road map for Human Resource decision makers who are screening potential hires and current employees or who are evaluating outside background screening companies, Background Screening [...

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