Data mining to stop crime, or support it?
The New York Times had an interesting pair of articles yesterday about the use of data mining and its effect on criminal justice. The first one described the expansion of business intelligence software beyond its initial role in the retail world. Business intelligence software examines patterns in large amounts of data. For example, this allows Wal-Mart to optimize inventory in each store by taking into account local variations in taste.
In 2005, the police chief in Richmond, Virginia decided to try similar software to predict criminal activity. They analyzed 911 calls, arrests, and other data points. They found that crime increased in Hispanic neighborhoods on payday. The reason? Many residents do not use banking services, making the extra cash a tempting target for thieves. Using analyses like this, the police were able to better deploy their forces in advance of problems, and crime fell 20%.
The second story, entitled “Bilking the Elderly, With a Corporate Assist”, showed a darker side. Data mining has found a lucrative home in consumer marketing, allowing advertisers to target their pitches to the people most likely to buy. InfoUSA is an example of a list broker, a company that sells names of people that fit categories such as new moms, motorcycle owners, and so on. They also had some more questionable lists:
InfoUSA advertised lists of “Elderly Opportunity Seekers,” 3.3 million older people “looking for ways to make money,” and “Suffering Seniors,” 4.7 million […]
Florida to restore date of birth identifier to court records
Via the National Association of Professional Background Screeners newsletter, it appears that Florida has decided to restore access to dates of birth in court records. As we posted earlier, this is an extremely important issue for performing accurate criminal checks. The date of birth is needed to prevent confusion between defendants with the same name, especially since access to social security numbers is becoming ever more restricted. Specifically, this is what is happening for Florida:
By a 5-4 vote, the committee voted to recommend to the Court that full dates of birth be available electronically as part of the progress docket information for defendants in criminal matters. The four voting “no” wanted full dates of birth for both criminal and civil parties…Phase I of the pilot should launch by mid-June. That is not the public access phase, but the court users phase.
It is not altogether clear to me if the pilot includes background check providers but I think that is likely soon.
The date of birth issue has popped up elsewhere as well. In Utah, the Daily Herald recently argued for keeping birth dates in public view. Their concern is analysis of voter rolls. In order to find voter fraud, the date of birth is needed to distinguish between the same person voting multiple times versus multiple people with the same name. It can also be used to identify dead people and felons who are not legally permitted to vote.
I […]
Court rules Google background checks are legal
From Techdirt, we learn that the search engine background checks discussed in an earlier post have now been officially made legal — at least to a limited degree. An employee at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration was fired for misusing government property, a decision that was apparently made easier when an online search revealed that he had been fired two previous times as well. The employee, David M. Mullins, admitted that he had forged travel receipts to receive reimbursement, and an investigation determined that he cost taxpayers $6,419.83. No criminal charges were filed. But when Mullins was fired, in modern fashion he decided to sue.
Mullins argued that the online background check (done via Google) violated rules of fundamental fairness. The appeals court disagreed. In their opinion, the investigator was not unduly influenced by the online search, and decided to terminate him based on the other evidence, including a list of 102 documented violations. (Whatever else one might say about the government, they know how to document things before letting someone go.) Therefore the online search did not in and of itself render the decision capricious.
It is not clear what the situation would be if the Google check had been the primary cause of termination. It certainly seems a risky course for an employer to take. Online information can be inaccurate, and identity confusion is common. There is no consumer dispute process. A full
Marijuana meets the government purchasing office
And now, for a story that could only happen in Canada.
In America, marijuana use is generally illegal. In any given day it is easy to find news of various drug busts that scoop up otherwise respectable citizens. There has recently been a concerted push to legalize marjiuana use for medical purposes, and some local jurisdictions support this, but marijuana possession remains a federal crime.
A few weeks ago, events in Canada presented a vision of what the future might be like if marijuana was legalized for medical use here. The Canadian government was forced into supplying marijuana to qualified individuals by a series of court decisions, but in the end it apparently decided to make the best of things. Financial records revealed that they were applying a 1,500% markup to the weed sold to patients. The resulting uproar had a comforting familiarity to anyone who has witnessed fights over health care prices in the U.S. It is a bit difficult however to understand the economics. According to this news story:
There are 1,742 patients authorized by Health Canada to possess dried pot as a medication. Of these, 1,040 are licensed to grow their own, and another 167 people are licensed to grow marijuana for the exclusive use of licensed patients.
So it would seem that the small number of customers could grow their own supply — unless the costs of running a smaller operation are greater than the markup. The imbroglio […]
Background check loopholes in Virginia start closing
A couple of weeks ago we noted a loophole in the gun background check requirements which allowed Cho Seung Hui to bypass rules preventing the sale of firearms to those of questionable sanity. He was able to purchase guns even though he had been ordered into psychiatric counseling by a judge. Given the terrible consequences that followed, it is not surprising to learn that Virginia has moved quickly to address the problem. On Monday, Governor Timothy Kaine signed an executive order explicitly stating that any involuntary psychiatric care, whether in-patient or outpatient, must be reported to the Central Criminal Records Exchange. This criminal database is used to determine eligibility for Virginia fireams purchases, and the order further specifies that these records are to be shared with federal authorities “as appropriate”.
There are limits to what an executive order can do, of course, and the Governor states in the order that he expects the legislature to deal with the issue more comprehensively in the 2008 session. As it turns out, there are ways to buy guns in Virginia without any background checks: gun shows, trade publications, and private transactions between gun owners. There have been annual attempts to require background checks at gun shows, but none have succeeded thus far.
More broadly, the majority of states do not report any mental health records to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System that is used to vet potential gun guyers. Privacy […]
What is the Driver’s Privacy Protection Act (DPPA)?
If you have been looking for companies to help you with a broad range of employment screening needs, you may have noticed that there are quite a few vendors offering criminal background checks — but that driving records are much harder to find. There are a number of legal and economic reasons for this, but the most significant is the Driver’s Privacy Protection Act. Passed in 1994, the law was a response to the murder of actress Rebecca Schaeffer. Her attacker had obtained her home address from the California Department of Motor Vehicles indirectly, through a private investigator. During debate on the bill, a number of stories recounted the ease with which a stalker could get home addresses based only a license plate, which is visible to anyone. The law passed, survived legal challenges that went up to the Supreme Count, and has since been updated with further protections. Many states, including California, have restrictions that are even more severe but the DPPA is the minimum they must all meet.
According to the DPPA only the following uses of personal motor vehicle record information are permitted:
- Legitimate government agency functions.
- Use in matters of motor vehicle safety, theft, emissions, product recalls.
- Motor vehicle market research and surveys.
- "Legitimate" business needs in transactions initiated by the
individual to verify accuracy of personal information.
[…]