California Marijuana Decriminalization Drops Youth Crime Rate To Record Low Between 2010 and 2011, California experi-enced a drastic 20 percent decrease in juve-nile crime--bringing the underage crime rate to the lowest level since the state started keeping records in 1954. According to a recently released study, much of that improvement can be credited to the decriminalization of marijuana. The research not only found juvenile crime to be at its lowest level ever but, in the wake of then-Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signing a bill reducing the punishment for possessing a small amount of marijuana from a misdemeanor to simply an infraction, the drop in rates was particularity significant.

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D.C. Federal Court Has Smallest Average Criminal Case-load, Survey Finds Between October 2006 and July of this year, judges in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia on average sentenced 147 defendants in criminal cas-es. According to a new study, the city's federal

court had the smallest aver-age criminal caseload of any federal court nation-wide during that time. The Transactional Rec-ords Access Clearinghouse, or TRAC, released the re-sults of a new analysis of sentencing data from the federal courts. TRAC, which is based at Syracuse University, measured crim-inal caseloads by the num-ber of defendants sentenced per judge; TRAC Co-Director Susan Long said they thought sentencings

would be a useful measur-ing tool because most crim-inal cases in the federal courts end in a guilty plea or conviction. But U.S. District Chief Judge Royce Lamberth of the D.C.-based court said he didn't think the study was a helpful way to gauge criminal caseloads and ju-dicial workloads, since it put all criminal cases on an even playing field, regard-less of their complexity or how long they took to re-solve.

"In other courts, most of those cases are one-hour guilty pleas. If that's the case, compared to Roger Clemens or large cases we have here that go on for weeks, I don't think it's helpful for understanding the process," he said, refer-ring to the years-long pro-ceedings against Clemens, the former professional baseball player who was ultimately acquitted of charges of lying to Con-gress. Courthouses in states along the U.S.-Mexico bor-der had the largest average caseloads, according to the TRAC study. In the Las Cruces, N.M., courthouse, the one active judge studied there handled 7,020 sen-tencings alone, the most of any other court's average caseload. According to TRAC, sentencings have been higher in the South-west because of the federal government's increased ef-forts to prosecute immigra-tion-related matters. Long said that while dif-ferent cases might have dif-ferent lengths, the length of the study period – more than five years – was enough to take into account the varying lengths of cases and provide an accurate sense of the criminal case-load in any given court. She said that a previous study looking at the total number of defendants yielded simi-lar results as far as showing varying caseloads between

different courts. Lamberth noted that the study didn't include the large number of cases the D.C. court has handled re-lated to detainees at the Guantanamo Bay detention center. Those cases, which are mostly habeas petitions filed by detainees, aren't considered criminal cases, he said, but they had "swamped" the court. Besides comparing case-loads at different courts, the TRAC study explored the differences in caseloads among judges serving in the same court. Although caseloads varied widely among judges in some courts, including the Los Angeles courthouse of the Central District of Califor-nia and the Beaumont, Tex-as courthouse of the East-ern District of Texas, case-loads in the Washington federal courthouse were fairly consistent.

PUBLISHER Steven Brownstein

CONTRIBUTORS: Mike Sankey, Les Rosen, Dennis Brownstein, Derek Hinton

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PURPOSE: “Dedicated to pre-employment screenings everywhere”

The Background Investigator is published by Steven Brownstein, LLC, PMB 1007, Box 10001, Saipan, MP 96950. Phone: 670-256-7000. Copyright 2012 by Steven Brownstein. Some material in this publication must not be repro-duced by any method without the written permission of the copyright holder.

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Even The Feds Make Money Off Criminal Records The federal government has collected millions from the online Public Access to Court Electronic Records system, or PACER – nearly five times what it cost to run the system. Between fiscal years 2006 and 2010, the government collected an average of $77 million a year from PAC-ER fees, according to the most recent federal figures available. Critics have derided PAC-ER, saying the government has increased user fees over the years without making the system easier to use. The fees, some say, act as a deterrent to public access. The Judiciary Appropria-tions Act of 1992 limited the use of PACER fees to “reimburse expenses in-curred in providing these

services.” But lawmakers on the House Appropria-tions Committee have al-lowed the courts to invest in a wider range of infor-mation technology projects using fees collected from PACER. Fees for online access have risen from 7 cents to 10 cents per page. “Given the lack of over-sight for what the fees are being used for, the incen-tive for the courts is to raise fees,” said Stephen Schultze, associate director of Princeton University’s Center for Information Technology Policy.

In recent years, U.S. Sen. Joe Lieberman of Connecti-cut and the American Asso-ciation of Law Libraries, which represents 5,000 law librarians nationwide, have tried without success to persuade the Administra-tive Office of the U.S. Courts and members of Congress to provide free access to PACER records.

Wayne County Circuit Court Records Now Online

Wayne County's 3rd Circuit Court has had a technologi-cal breakthrough. Court records, at least cer-tain details about cases — mostly scheduling, charges, party information and pleadings — are now avail-

able via the Internet. This is much easier than calling or visiting a kiosk downtown for basic infor-mation about a case. Check it out: https://cmspublic.3rdcc.org

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Thousands Of ID Scammers Reside In USA There are 10,000 active identity theft crime rings across the United States, with the greatest concentra-tion in a "ring of fraud" that stretches across the South-east from Virginia to Mis-sissippi, according to a new report by fraud-fighting firm ID Analytics.

A majority of these rings are what the firm calls "Friends & Family" groups, not professional criminal organizations, the report concludes. The rings are most highly concentrated in Washington D.C.; Detroit; Tampa, Fla.; Greenville, Miss., Macon, Georgia; and Montgomery, Ala., the re-port found. While traditional orga-nized crime and drug crime

rings also form ID fraud rings, the most surprising result of this research was the prevalence of what he called "Friends and Fami-ly" fraud rings. More than half of the rings include multiple family members. "This is a strong indica-tion that more than half are not what we’d think of as professional groups," says head researcher Stephen Coggeshall. "(It’s) a family or an innocuous neighbor committing fraud.” Continuing he added, “"It appears that the children in these groups are (even) stealing their own parents’ identities."

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Alabama Effective October 1, 2012, Chief Justice Chuck Malone entered an Order mandating that all attorneys must e-file their documents in civil, do-mestic relations, and child support cases. Per this Order and the Administrative Procedures, the Circuit Clerks' offices will eventually go com-pletely paperless in civil cases. See www.alacourt.gov/pdfppt/EfilingAdminOrder%209-6-12_001.pdf Colorado This month Eagle County is in the process of moving to a new software provider for searching recorded documents. The site has new options available, see http://acclaim.eaglecounty.us/. California California counties continue to close court sites or cut back on operations. The Kings County Superior Court location in Lemoore was closed last month. Also all Kings County court location hours have been permanently cut back. All clerk's windows are now open 8AM-4PM Monday thru Thursday and 8AM-Noon on Friday. In addition the Court intends to close locations in Avenal and Corcoran and reduce hours and staff at Hanford over the Christmas week. As many other CA counties have already done, effective November 5, 2012 the San Diego Superior Court will only provide court reporters in criminal felony, family, and juvenile matters during regular court hours. Official court reporters will not be available in probate or other civil matters. Also, effective December 28, 2012, official court reporters will only be available in family matters for Domestic Violence Restraining Order hearings, Contempt hearings, and Request for Order hearings of 40 minutes or less. Oregon OJIN is the acronym for the online program provides court case information from Circuit Courts in all 36 counties in the state. The Oregon Judi-cial Department OJD is working to migrate the online platform from OJIN to a designated vendor (Odyssey). The purpose is to create a more modern, user-friendly environment for record access, compared to the OJIN command line based system. South Dakota The South Dakota Unified Judicial System (UJS) recently changed the county serving as the centralized mail request center for statewide crimi-nal record searches. The UJS asks that all mail requests be directed to the processing center at: Jackson County Clerk of Court, PO Box 128, Kadoka, SD 57543. 605-837-2122, fax 605-837-2120. Note the UJS will periodically change the designated county to operate the processing center. Be sure to call first.

We welcome your comments and observations about The Public Record Update Please address your comments to Michael Sankey at mike@brbpublications.com Making copies of any part of the Public Record Update© for any purpose other than your own personal use is prohibited unless written authorization is obtained from BRB Publications. Phone - 480-829-7475 Public Record Retriever Network - www.prrn.us The CRA Help Desk - www.CRAHelpDesk.com BRB's Free Public Record Resource Center - www.brbpublications.com/pubrecsites.asp Motor Vehicle Record Decoder - www.mvrdecoder.com BRB's Public Record Blog - www.publicrecordsblog.net BRB's Bookstore - www.brbpublications.com/books BRB's Public Record Blog - www.publicrecordsblog.net

A large background screening firm facing a class action lawsuit alleg-ing inaccurate reports in violation of the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) failed in its at-tempt to have the FCRA declared unconstitutional on the basis that it violates the right to free speech un-der the First Amendment. A Pennsylvania federal court ruled on November 6, 2012 that the FCRA was constitutional since it regu-lated information dissemi-nated for private purposes for a fee, and not to the public. More information about the ruling is available at http://www.paed.uscourts.gov/documents/opinions/12D1046P.pdf. The FCRA is the federal law that regulates back-ground checks. The lawsuit alleges that the screening

firm provided inaccurate reports by providing a pro-spective employer with in-formation on past arrests that were dismissed and were older than seven years, which is prohibited by FCRA section 605 (U.S.C 1681c). That law prohibits a background firm, known as a Consumer Reporting Agency (CRA) from providing arrests rec-ords to employers that are more than seven years old. There is an exception, how-ever, if the annual salary is expected to be $75,000 or more a year. . In this case, the lead plain-tiff in the class action law-suit alleged that the CRA reported ten cases older than seven years where she was arrested but no prose-cutions occurred. It appears that the parties agreed with the fact that the arrests too old to report under the FCRA. However, the CRA argued that the FCRA itself was unconstitutional since it violated the CRA's right to free speech. The CRA contended that a 2011 U.S. Supreme Court case on commercial speech marked a major change in the protections provided to commercial speech and re-quired a court to apply a stricter standard of review. The plaintiff, as well as the federal government which entered the case, argued that a background report is not protected since it deals with private matters, and

that the information is only disseminated to an employ-er that purchases the ser-vices. After a lengthy re-view of the arguments and an analysis of the applica-ble law, the court conclud-ed that the FCRA was con-stitutional. The Court also noted that "...the federal government enacted section 1681c of the FCRA to provide busi-nesses with the most accu-rate and relevant infor-mation while simultaneous-ly protecting the privacy right of consumers. More important, section 1681c's speech restriction is appro-priately justified." The ruling had the effect of denying the background firm's effort to have the case dismissed. (NOTE: The case is from the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, No. 10-6850, and filed 11/06/12). It is this author's policy not to identify firms where a mat-ter is only in the pre-trial state since the complaints are just allegations.) Regardless of the eventual outcome of the lawsuit, the case demonstrates yet again that background checks are subject to ever increasing levels of litigation, legisla-tion, and regulation. On the other hand, failure to per-form background checks will almost certainly sub-ject an employer to the le-

gal and financial nightmare of a bad hire. The solution is a background check pro-gram done in full legal compliance.

A Nice Letter About Us by Jayme Klauser

During my employment and as manager of a small human resource company, we have performed and au-thorized background screenings for years. In several instances we have received potentially nega-tive information on an ap-plicant for employment that would adversely affect their chances of gaining employ-ment. At those times, we conducted additional in-quiries of both the employ-ee and the reporting agen-cy. We have called court-houses where the charges originated to prove or dis-prove the information on a report. Our clients realize the importance of checking the people that work for them and we do all we can to protect the integrity of their workplace while re-specting an individual ap-plicant from unfair deci-sions based on incorrect information. One specific example of the failure to do back-ground checks in a Florida business resulted in a homeowner’s murder. She was tragically killed by workers who had cleaned

her air ducts six months earlier. Both employees had criminal backgrounds and one was a twice convicted sexual offender on parole; however the company that hired them did not conduct any criminal record check prior to hiring them. This tragedy inspired the vic-tim’s sister to start the Sue Weaver CAUSE — Con-sumer Awareness of Un-safe Service Employment — to educate people on the necessity of criminal back-ground checks on workers entering homes. The web-site is www.sueweavercause.org. As a member of the Na-tional Association of Pro-fessional Background Screeners, we comply with Federal Trade Commission requirements and promote the importance of back-ground screening. We encourage all busi-nesses to know who they are hiring and protect their workplace and the safety of their employees and cus-tomers, especially our chil-dren

Les Rosen’s Corner

A monthly column By Lester Rosen, Attorney at Law

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Government At Fault For Many Criminal Record Errors by Dick Baggett

There are various reasons the Equal Employment Op-portunity Commission de-cided to reissue guidance on the use of criminal and arrest records in hiring de-cisions, among them: Recent studies have found that a significant number of state and federal criminal record databases include incomplete criminal rec-ords. A 2011 study by the De-partment of Justice reported that, as of 2010, many state criminal history record re-positories still had not rec-orded the final dispositions for a significant number of arrests. A 2006 study by the De-partment of Justice found that only 50 percent of ar-rest records in the FBI's database were associated with a final disposition. Reports have documented that criminal records may be inaccurate. Even if public access to criminal records has been restricted by a court order to seal and/or expunge such records, this does not guar-antee that private compa-nies also will purge the in-formation from their sys-tems or that the event will be erased from media ar-chives. Criminal background checks may produce inac-curate results because crim-inal records may lack "unique" information or because of "misspellings, clerical errors or intention-ally inaccurate identifica-tion information provided by search subjects who wish to avoid discovery of their prior criminal activi-ties."

California Youth Crime Rate Drops To Record Low Continued from page 1

The study, entitled "California Youth Crime Plunges to All-Time Low" and released by the San Francisco-based Center on Juvenile and Criminal Jus-tice, looked at the number of people under the age of 18 who were arrested in the

state over the past eight decades. In that one-year period (2010-2011), the number of arrests for violent crimes dropped by 16 percent, homicide went down by 26 percent and drug arrests decreased by nearly 50 per-cent. The category of drug ar-rests showed decreases in every type of crime; how-ever, the vast majority of the drop resulted from far

fewer arrests for marijuana possession. In 2010, mari-juana possession accounted for 64 percent of all drug arrests, and in 2011, that number decreased to only 46 percent. California's drop in seri-ous youth crime has de-creased faster than in the rest of the nation. The study's authors dis-count a host of explanations as to why juvenile crime has dropped so precipitous-

ly (such as changes in the way the statistics are gath-ered, demographic changes, harsher sentences acting as a deterrent and other cultur-al factors like family con-nections). They assert that only two major factors ex-plain the trend: the loosen-ing of marijuana laws and improvements in the eco-nomic well-being of Cali-fornia's youth.

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And We Think The Crooks Are Stupid New Orleans city prose-cutor Jason Cantrell was forced to resign this week after a reefer fell out of his pocket … in court…while he was speaking to a police officer! Awkward. Eyewitnesses said it was quite comical watching the officer glance down at the joint, then at another of-ficer, before chuckling and leading Cantrell out of the courtroom to write him up. Easiest. Drug bust. Ever. Cantrell was cited and let go, but later stepped down from his city post.

Stupidity Must Grow On Trees The great thing about this country’s legal system is that everyone is innocent until proven guilty. Two Florida men were innocent until proven stupid! Vernon D. Jones, 21, and Jacques Saintil, 19, of Na-ples, Florida, were picked up on suspicion of burglary

but denied knowing anything about any burgla-ry. Their presumption of innocence, however, literal-ly went up in smoke when, while being taken to the county jail, a video camera inside the patrol car record-ed them discussing the bur-glary … while passing a joint back and forth! Yeah, cuz, weed doesn’t emit a strong odor, you know? These two geniuses now face charges of burglary, grand theft and marijuana possession.

You Don't Have To Be Irish To Appreciate This A man who got a friend to stab him in the leg in order to avoid a court hearing has being given a suspended sentence of six months. James Ledden (32) was due to appear before a Dub-lin District Court on a pub-lic order offence when he asked his friend in the pub-lic smoking area of the Criminal Courts of Justice to stab him. He was taken to St James's Hospital where he reported the incident to (police) and told them that he had been assaulted. Ledden, of Ferrymans Crossing, North Wall, Dub-lin 1, pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to making a false re-port at the hospital on Janu-ary 13, 2011.

His friend was charged with unlawful possession of a knife.

The List Goes On… Brisbane court evacuated over bomb threat (11/15) Courthouse evacuated in Jackson after bomb threat (11/27) Cape courts hit by bomb threats (11/21) Warwickshire Justice Cen-tre evacuated (11/21) Clark County Courthouse Evacuated Because Of Bomb Threat (11/15) All clear given at Union Co. Courthouse after suspi-cious package ...(11/15)

24 Tenn. courthouses re-ceive bomb threats (11/27) Bomb Threat Closes Sofia's Central Court Building (11/27) Bomb threat at Benton County Justice Center a hoax (11/16)

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Glitch Has Limited Access To Riverside, CA Court Records A programming glitch when a new computer sys-tem was installed in the Riverside County Superior Court system mistakenly labeled public records as confidential. Civil temporary restrain-ing orders are public rec-ords but have been off lim-its to the public for several months because of an error in programming and a mis-understanding by records department clerks, said Lori Whaley, chief deputy of operations for the county court system. Civil restraining orders are not legally permitted online but are accessible in the records department. But the system error made them confidential at the court-house, as well. Clerks also there were under the im-pression that the records were not public because of

the programming mistake. Technical employees are working to fix the problem that has existed for a couple of months, Whaley said.

Records Retrievers Trash Dallas Courthouse Dallas County Clerk John Warren told the Dallas County Commissioners Court that abstractors who have been using a Records Building room for decades have left the space in disar-ray. He presented to com-missioners pictures that showed open records draw-ers, microfilm cartridges strewn about cabinets and all sorts of old office equip-ment stacked also stacked on top of cabinets. His comments came during tense interactions between county officials this morn-ing. Misty Morelock, opera-tions vice president of

DeSoto-based Metroplex Document Retrieval, said most of the clutter is aban-doned office equipment from title companies and abstractors who used to work in the room. A stair-well between the workroom and Warren’s office is so cluttered with old office equipment, that people in Room 333 can’t access the stairs in the case of an emergency. “So it’s just piled on and piled on and no one wants to

take the responsibility of cleaning it,” Morelock said. She also said Warren has never asked anyone who uses the room to clean it. “Not once,” she said. Morelock said the county has essentially ignored the room and its upkeep. She said custodians empty the trash but haven’t mopped it or cleaned it in five years. She said the heating and air conditioning units in the

room barely work. “It’s a county building, what right do I have to make any decisions about the room?” she said.

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Brits Can Have No Conviction But Criminal Record Haunts Them For 100 Years Growing numbers of peo-ple are being turned down for jobs and university places because they accept-ed police cautions for mi-nor offences without realis-ing they would give them a criminal record. New figures show that cautions showed up on 153,000 Criminal Records Bureau checks carried out last year, allowing employ-ers to stop candidates work-ing with children or in health and social care. Young people caught shoplifting or taking part in drunken pranks are agree-ing to sign the statements in the mistaken belief they will be wiped from data-bases after a few years, not realising that they remain on file until they turn 100. A lawyer has now set up a business to help people af-fected by vetting checks find work or education, as the problem is becoming so common and overturning cautions is so difficult. David Wacks, the legal director of CRB Problems Ltd, said: 'Minor incidents or pranks which in the past may have merited a 'good talking to' by a policeman often end up in cautions which may ruin a person's job prospects.' Josie Appleton of the Manifesto Club, a libertari-an group that is campaign-ing against out-of-court punishments, said: 'It is fundamentally unjust that people's careers can be blighted by a reprimand that hasn't been proven in a court of law.' Jackie Sinclair from the crime reduction charity Nacro, said: 'Cautions, rep-

rimands and final warnings do form part of a person's record, and are always dis-closed on both standard and enhanced criminal record checks, even though many people have been told oth-erwise.' In total 2.8 million cau-tions, known as first-time reprimands and final warn-ings when given to under-18s, have been handed out in England and Wales over the past decade. They are usually offered by police after they arrest someone for shoplifting, possession of small amounts of soft drugs and minor violent crimes. Station officers tell of-fenders they can either sign a statement to accept the

caution and the matter will be closed, but if they refuse they will face prosecution. Cautions do not count as convictions but they do re-quire the perpetrator to ad-mit their guilt and details are recorded on the Police National Computer. Until 2009 there was a system whereby they would be 'stepped down' after a few years, but although this was removed it is widely believed that the penalties are wiped when teenagers turn 18. Now cautions remain on a person's file until they turn 100 and although they do not have to be disclosed when applying for jobs, they show up on CRB checks.

The only way cautions can be deleted is by applying to the chief constable of the force that handed it out.

CRB Changes The Disclosure and Bar-ring Service, a new organi-zation formed from the merger of the Criminal Records Bureau and the Independent Safeguarding Authority, has launched. The new Disclosure and Barring Service will make it clearer and simpler for those requiring criminal records disclosures (CRB) and barring checks for em-ployment purposes. The Disclosure Barring Service will oversee the introduction of portable CRB checks which will

eliminate the need for mul-tiple checking and an online update service which will make it easier for em-ployers to assess individu-als. Other upcoming changes to the current system of criminal record checks and barring include introducing a single criminal records certificate which will be sent only to the applicant; an independent right of re-view to allow individuals to challenge information dis-closed about them before it is given to their employer; and reducing the number of positions requiring barring checks from 9.3m to around 5m. Portable CRB checks are due to launch in Spring 2013.

Derek Hinton’s Column

Not Having Procedures For Maximum Possible Accuracy: Riding A Dead Horse Have you noticed the re-cent action by the FTC against a CRA? Are you aware of the legal actions by plaintiff attorneys against CRAs, especially in California? Did you happen to catch the NBC Today Show on background screening that aired No-vember 9? It’s not paranoia if people are really after you. The recent NBC Today Show went back to 2006 and found a lady that had a criminal record run on her and the record actually per-tained to a different lady with the same name. (As they say down here in Ok-lahoma, it was a startle’n ex-po-say. ). And, to make the industry look really sil-ly, they had pictures of the two ladies, one being white and one being African American. The NAPBS did a good job of responding the same day, saying part “NBC’s Today Show and reporter Jeff Rossen have done a disservice to employers and the general public by focus-ing on a small number of unfortunate instances in an attempt to indict an entire

industry that is critical to the safety of our homes and workplaces,” and “For our part, NAPBS has developed a comprehensive individual certification program and a company based accredita-tion program with more than 58 specific standards of compliance to ensure our members provide the high-est level of performance.” Do you think if we had the budget and could go back to 2006 we could find a case of journalistic malfea-sance surpassing this em-ployment screening mis-take? Of course. Do you think we could find worse instances of the legal profession harming people? Of course. Have employment screen-ing firms provided a greater public net good than harm? Not even close, of course. With that said, if you are in the background screen-ing business and you have been putting off instituting, documenting and monitor-ing procedures dealing with consumer protection, legal and compliance, client edu-cation, data and verification standards and other busi-ness practices to ensure maximum possible accura-cy, you’re riding a dead horse. The majority of the indus-try has dismounted that

dead horse or is in the pro-cess of doing so. But there are too many companies still trying other strategies like buying a stronger whip, changing riders, saying things like "This is the way we always have ridden this horse,” appointing a committee to study the horse, arranging to visit other sites to see how they ride dead horses, changing the requirements declaring that "This horse is not dead," harnessing several dead horses togeth-er for increased speed, de-claring that "No horse is too dead to beat," providing additional funding to in-crease the horse's perfor-mance, purchasing a prod-uct to make dead horses run faster, declaring the horse is now "better, faster and cheaper," revisiting the per-formance requirements for horses, saying “this horse was procured with cost as an independent variable,” etc. etc—they’re all equally effective remedies for rid-ing a dead horse. They say an expert is someone who knows some of the worst mistakes that can be made in his subject and how to avoid them. The NAPBS Accreditation standard is a cheat sheet from experts that will help you avoid the mistakes con-sistent with attempting to ride a dead horse. As noted

above, it contains 58 spe-cific standards of compli-ance—many learned the hard way. If you are not incorporating those stand-ards, I would dismount that horse you’re attempting to ride. Derek Hinton is President of CRAzoom (www.crazoom.com) a company providing com-plete accreditation assis-tance to CRAs.

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Air Force May Limit Access To Criminal Records The Air Force is changing the rules on how the media and general public get in-formation about airmen ac-cused of crimes. A recent Air Force In-struction lists several changes to how the service applies the Uniform Code of Military Justice that are intended to protect the pri-vacy of accused airmen at the expense of the public’s right to know. The Air Force Instruction appears to curtail the pub-lic’s access to criminal rec-ords. “Under the Privacy Act, information from a system of records, such as a court-martial file maintained in a [Judge Advocate General’s] office about an individual, may not be released to the public without the individu-al’s consent unless release is required by the Freedom of Information Act,” the instruction says. But submitting a FOIA request does not guarantee that you will get such rec-ords if doing so would be “an unwarranted invasion of an individual’s personal privacy,” which is when someone’s privacy interests outweigh the public’s inter-est in the information, the

instruction says. “Considering the fact that anyone subject to the UCMJ can act as an accus-er under the UCMJ, the ac-cused normally retains a reasonable expectation of privacy upon preferral of charges,” the instruction says. That expectation of priva-cy begins to decline when the charges reach a public forum, such as a court-martial or Article 32 hear-ing, the instruction says. An Air Force spokesman said the changes outlined in the instruction do not limit what information is availa-ble to the media but are meant to ensure that FOIA and the privacy act are im-plemented properly. “This will not change the media’s current ability to get charge sheets or other information about accused airmen,” Lt. Col. John Dor-rian said in an email. “We have simply clarified cur-rent policy and law to en-sure uniform application across the Air Force. Cases must always be reviewed on a case-by-case basis.” However, the instruction also requires military attor-neys to comply with the FOIA guidelines, a concern to Eugene R. Fidell, who teaches military justice at Yale Law School. “Taken literally, this reg-ulation produces absurd results,” Fidell told Air

Force Times. Fidell wonders if every-one, including attorneys who want to write “friend of the court” briefs, will now have to submit a FOIA request to get any docu-ments related to criminal trials from military attor-neys — even defense mo-tions. With all the paper-work, delays and internal appeals, the FOIA process ends up impeding transpar-ency.

New York Cops Find Way To Get Cell-Phone Telephone Records by Rebecca Greenfield

Without court orders of any sort, the New York City police have gotten ac-cess to "a trove of tele-phone logs," reports The New York Times's Joseph Goldstein. In a somewhat frightening twist, it takes more paper-work to get a thief's cell records than it takes to get the victim's. Here's how it works: Police need a subpoena to get access to the phone logs of the person who did the stealing, which makes sense because those could help solve the crime. (Though, often they don't, say detectives.)

But in that process, the NYPD, without additional warrants or subpoenas or any of that, can see all the happenings on that stolen phone. Sometimes phone companies even give up information associated with the victim's new number, which is a little bit unset-tling, right? Civil Rights Lawyer Nor-man Siegal agrees. "There is absolutely no legitimate purpose for doing this. If I’m an innocent New York-er, why should any of my information be in a police database," he tells Gold-stein. Also, it doesn't quite make sense that law enforcement would hold on to the infor-mation after the case is closed, either. Police won't say how many records they have hostage. But phone compa-nies got 1.5 million* of these requests in 2011 alone. So, probably a lot? T-Mobile responded to al-most 300 in January alone.

Woman Has Lost Right To Know Father A woman who wanted to know the identity of her sperm-donor father is tak-ing her case to Canada's top court after the B.C. Court of Appeal threw out an ear-lier decision that sided with her. Olivia Pratten wanted off-spring like herself to be treated the same as people who are adopted and ar-gued that the B.C. govern-ment should change its laws accordingly. But the appeal court ruled there is no legal right for offspring to know their past and providing such infor-mation would amount to state intrusion into many people's lives. "It's very disappointing,"

Pratten said of the appeal court ruling. "All we were asking for is the same benefits of adopt-ed people. They've basical-ly said, `No, you can't have that.' And they've basically said that it's OK for the government to discrimi-nate. It's failing to protect the health and safety of do-nor-conceived people, that's what this court has done. We'll be appealing it to the Supreme Court of Canada." The appeal court conclud-ed that contrary to Pratten's argument, it is not her con-stitutional right to know her biological past. "There are many non-donor offspring who do not know their family history or the identity of their bio-logical father because of decisions taken by others, or because of the circum-stances of their concep-tion," Justice David Frankel said in the written ruling on behalf of the three judges. "However desirable it may be that persons have access to information about their biological origins, Ms. Pratten has not established that such access has been recognized as so `fundamental' that it is enti-tled to independent consti-tutionally protected status under the Charter," the rul-ing said. In May 2011, a B.C. Su-preme Court judge agreed with Pratten, giving the province 15 months to amend its Adoption Act, saying people who are de-prived of their genetic backgrounds suffer psycho-logical harm. Judge Elaine Adair also ordered a permanent in-junction against the de-struction of donor records, which can be disposed of in six years, but the B.C. gov-ernment appealed the rul-ing.

Researchers Charge Racial Profiling On Online Criminal Record Websites Two Harvard researchers charged that a website which catalogs mug shots and criminal records engag-es in racial profiling in its advertising—just before the founder of a different crim-inal records website made his first public appearance. Director of the Data Priva-cy Lab at Harvard Latanya Sweeney and Harvard De-partment of Government Fellow Adam Tanner have researched these websites while writing an upcoming book on online criminal records. “What has changed is scope of sharing,” Sweeney said. “Years ago...limits of technology posed natural barriers to sharing and dis-semination.” Today, however, this in-formation is rapidly spread online. In their talk—subtitled “a tale of crime, betrayal, lust, race, and the internet”—Sweeney and Tanner al-leged based on their re-search that Google searches for typically African-American names lead to negative ads posted by one of these criminal records sites, InstantCheck-mate.com, while typically Caucasian names draw neu-tral ads. For example, when Sweeney searched her own name, she saw an ad say-ing, “Latanya Sweeney: Arrested?” In contrast, a search for “Tanya Smith” produced an ad saying, “Located: Tanya Smith.” Sweeney and Tanner’s research led them across the country in attempt to uncover the people behind these criminal records web-sites. Tanner traveled to

Las Vegas to try to speak to an employee of Instant-Checkmate.com. “I told them what I knew about the racial profiling, and they said, ‘We can’t talk to you, you have to come back.’” Tanner said. When Tanner finally met with the company’s call center manager, he said he was told, “I don’t care if you’re the Pope of Rome; you’re not welcome here.” But at the event on at which Tanner and Sweeney spoke in CGIS, Kyle Prall, the founder of similar site BustedMugshots.com, agreed to answer audience questions and accusations about his business. Sweeney had suggested that sites like BustedMug-shots.com could qualify as using extortion tactics, since they demand payment to remove images. Prall affirmed that these public records are available to the public based on the First Amendment, justifying the practices of his website.

Good Samaritan Helps Druggie, Gets Arrested For Possession Unintentional drug over-dose is one of the leading causes of death in Florida, where an average of seven people die every day from the misuse of prescription drugs, according to Orange County Mayor Teresa Ja-cobs’ Prescription Drug Task Force. As of Oct. 1, the 911 Good Samaritan Act went into effect in an attempt to reduce the number of over-dose-related deaths. Florida passed the bill in March, which protects any person experiencing a drug-related overdose, or any person seeking medical assistance for someone who is, from being charged with a crime of possession. “I think it’s something

that students need to know,” said Thomas Hall, director of Wellness and Health Promotion Services

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Law Allows NC Nonviolent Offenders To Clear Records A law change that went into effect December 1st allows one-time, nonviolent offenders of all ages to ex-punge their criminal rec-

ords in North Carolina. The change applies only to people convicted of cer-tain felonies or misdemean-ors who, for 15 years after-ward, have no other convic-tions other than traffic vio-lations in any jurisdiction. The law can apply even to multiple felonies or misde-meanors if a person was convicted of all within the same court session. Some offenses may not be purged from a criminal rec-ord, including: — those containing assault as an essential element — certain sex-related or stalking offenses — those involving meth-amphetamine, heroin or possession with intent to sell or deliver cocaine — burning crosses in pub-lic places, intimidation by displaying items such as a noose, or intimidation while wearing a mask, hood or other disguise — those in which a person contaminated another’s food or drink to render them helpless To purge a record, the North Carolina resident may petition the court at least 15 years after the con-viction date or after any active sentence, probation or post-release supervision has been served, whichever is later. The petition — which in-cludes a $175 fee — must contain an affidavit by the petitioner that he or she has been of good moral charac-ter, statements from two unrelated people verifying the person’s good character and reputation, and affirma-tion that the petitioner has no outstanding restitution amounts or civil judgments. The request then goes to the District Attorney’s of-fice, which has 30 days to decide whether to object to the expunction. The district attorney also must make his best efforts to notify the victim of the crime, if one exists.

If a hearing on the matter is successful, the petition-er’s record is wiped clean, both in court and law en-forcement records. State and local law en-forcement agencies will still have the ability to re-view expunged records for employment purposes, ac-cording to the law. The agencies that certify law enforcement officers also can review the expunged records, which are to be kept in confidential files with the Administrative Office of the Courts. North Carolina law al-ready allowed a person to expunge certain crimes committed before age 18 or 21, but the changes now in effect expand the provision to adults of all ages. Ex-punction also is possible when charges are dis-missed, when a person is found not guilty or not re-sponsible, and when a per-son is pardoned.

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Congress: NBI Record Check In Philippines Needs Improvement A member of the Philip-pines House of Representa-tives has filed a bill calling for the creation of a nation-al crime database to up-grade the country’s crime fighting capabilities and to hasten the resolution of crimes. “This central computer-ized database will strength-en and expand inter-agency coordination and coopera-tion in terms of criminal records and other pertinent data needed to hasten reso-lution and prevention of crimes,” Marikina repre-sentative Marcelino Teodo-ro said in a statement. Teodoro is the author of HB 5709 or the “National Crime Database Act of 2012,” which proposes the establishment of the crimi-nal record database. “I am confident the Com-mittee on Public Order and Security would give due consideration to my pro-posal while there’s still time until our term ends in 2013,” Teodoro said. The bill would require the National Bureau of Investi-gation and the Philippine National Police to provide information and records for the National Identification Index and the National Fin-gerprint File in order to provide criminal history records in a timely fashion. Likewise, it should create criminal history records repositories, and for non-criminal justice purposes, to update existing criminal records system that are cur-rently outdated and contain incomplete or incorrect in-formation. “This data central would make accessible detailed

database of criminal history records, including arrest and dispositions,” Teodoro said. Criminal history records means information collect-ed by criminal agencies on individuals consisting of identifiable descriptions and notations of arrests, detentions, indictments, or other formal criminal charges, and any disposi-tion arising there from, in-cluding acquittal, sentenc-ing, correctional supervi-sion, or release. The terms do not include identification information such as fingerprint records if such information does not indicate involvement of the individual with the criminal justice system. The measure mandates the

establishment of a National Crime Database Council which shall have the au-thority to promulgate rules and procedures governing the use of the national criminal database.

Canadian Employees Stealing Like Crazy Canadian retailers are los-ing about $4 billion a year to “shrinkage” — a loss of inventory caused by differ-ent sources such as theft, inventory counting errors, accounting errors, fraud or damaged products accord-ing to PwC's 2012 Canadi-an Retail Security Survey, completed in conjunction with the Retail Council of Canada (RCC).

However, theft by em-ployees has risen to 33 per cent compared to 19 per cent in 2008, found the sur-vey of 34 retailers, repre-senting about one-quarter of 2011 retail new sales. On the other hand, esti-mated theft by external par-ties including shoplifters and organized criminals has decreased to 43 per cent since the 2008 estimate of 65 per cent. While three out of five retailers perform pre-employment screenings be-fore hiring new staff, only 29 per cent request new employees to pass a police background check. This is one-half as many that said they did so in 2008, found

the survey.

Airplane Joke Irish police are investigat-ing the crash of a small light aircraft in a cemetary south-west of Dublin. The emergency services say it may well be the worst aviation disaster in Irish history. Probing the crash site, res-cue workers have so far discovered over 500 bodies.

Rossen Reports: Background Check Mistakes Cost Jobs When you apply for a job, most employers will do a criminal background check. You may think it’s nothing to worry about if your rec-ord is clean, but experts are saying background compa-nies are causing innocent people to lose their jobs by mistaking them for felons. NBC’s Jeff Rossen investi-gates. This content comes from Closed Captioning that was broadcast along with this program.

>>> back now at 7:41 with "rossen reports." finding a new job is hard enough but now experts say there may be a hidden flaw that can ruin your chance of getting hired. today national inves-tigative correspondent jeff rossen is here with the de-tails. >> good morning. we all know when you apply for a job most employers will do a criminal background check . we do them here. nothing to worry about, right? because you're not a criminal. well, think again. experts say the background check companies are caus-ing innocent people to lose jobs, mistaking them for drug felons, armed robbers, even sex offenders . it hap-

pened to catherine taylor . a stay at home mom looking to get back to work. the red cross wanted to hire her. as an accountant. >> i was supposed to start work the following week. >> reporter: but then sud-denly catherine 's job offer was yanked. a criminal background check had come back with a long rap sheet of drug felonies. the problem is, it wasn't her. >> i was devastated. it was like my whole world was just torn apart. >> reporter: the company hired to run the background check in 2006 , choice-point, one of the biggest,

mixed her up with this catherine taylor , a repeat drug offender with the same date of birth but noth-ing else in common. they didn't even live in the same state. >> i have never been con-victed of anything, none-theless have a traffic ticket. >> reporter: consumer ad-vocates say these mistakes are happening far too often. take leonard smith . when he applied for a job the background check compa-ny, sterling info systems, confused him with this sex offender , who was in pris-on at the time. it also hap-pened to james hines , an innocent dad. the back-ground check company adp mixed him up with michael james hines , a convicted sex offender in a different state. they don't even have the same first name. the companies say accuracy is important, but errors do happen. >> consumers are losing jobs by the thousands every year because of bad back-ground checks that are run on them. >> reporter: jim francis is an attorney specializing in

these cases. he says too of-ten background check com-panies rely solely on com-puters to match the data with no one checking to make sure the results are correct. a billion dollar in-dustry, he says, that is well aware of the problem. if the companies know this prob-lem exists, why not just fix it? >> they would have to spend money on personnel and instituting procedures which would carve into their profits. >> reporter: under federal law , the companies are re-quired to use reasonable procedures to assure maxi-mum possible accuracy. >> the error rate is less than 10%.

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>> we went straight to the industry group representing those companies. >> accuracy is paramount. >> reporter: how do you explain background compa-nies coming back with a different date of birth, dif-ferent state, just matching a first and last name in some cases. does that seem accu-rate to you? >> it -- what i will say to that is that the most im-portant thing is to let view-ers know how background checks are conducted. you're speaking of hypo-theticals. >> reporter: we asked her about a real life example. i want to show you a picture. this woman's name is cath-erine taylor . she lives in arkansas and applied for a job with the local red cross . the background check comes back and says she has a long rap sheet of drug felonies. turns out they mistook her with this woman who lives in a dif-ferent state. how does this happen?

>> you know, if there are errors in a report individu-als do have an opportunity to contest it so i'm sorry. i just don't know all the facts of that particular case. >> reporter: catherine did contest it but by the time choicepoint cleared it up, that job was long gone. >> they need to have tight-er, stricter controls. you're talking about human lives. this has got to stop. >> the company that ran catherine taylor 's back-ground check was bought by lexus nexus . they say their systems have since improved and now they have a 99.8% accuracy rate. experts say if this happens to you, you don't have many options, unfortunate-ly. you can contact the background check company as catherine did and dispute it. the problem is, they have 30 days to investigate. by then the job could be long gone as it was with cathe-rine . the only other option unfortunately, savannah, is to sue the company but once again the job isn't there when you want it. they just go down the list. >> doesn't remedy it if you don't get the job. thanks for bringing the story. appreci-ate

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Background Check Mistakes Cost Jobs, Continued from preceding page

How We Punish Crime by Chip Corwin

I was taught in law school that prison sentences have two purposes: to ensure public safety and to punish the offender. For the past

few decades, meeting those goals has meant long prison terms even for nonviolent offenders, leading to soar-ing incarceration rates. A few states are now real-izing that they can cut pris-on sentences (and thus, costs) without sacrificing

public safety. Reforms in-clude expanding re-entry programs to curb recidi-vism and developing alter-natives to incarceration. Although state budget cri-ses spurred these changes, more than money is at stake. With continued re-

form, an American prison system that shocked Dick-ens in 1842 for its cruelty could finally begin to meet international standards, helping to restore America as a country of just authori-ty and moral leadership. But first, we need to stop

using punishment as a prin-cipal justification for lengthy prison terms and, instead, reserve prison for those who pose a grave risk to public safety. Punishment, where pro-ductive, could still be em-ployed through sanctions and local supervision of graduated intensity. But instead of going to prison, low-risk offenders should stay in the community. This emphasis on results over retribution would bring many benefits. Not only would it help redeem America’s image abroad, but it would also help re-store many communities that have come to regard prison as a rite of passage. Also, offenders not in pris-on are better able to pay restitution to victims. And, finally, reform could frus-trate the private prison in-dustry’s unconscionable efforts to profit off mass incarceration. Some think the existence of long prison terms for nonviolent offenders is a myth. That is not the case in many states. In Louisi-ana, writing a bad check can be worth up to 10 years. Even in Minnesota, a leader in community cor-rections, the time served for drug offenses has increased 99 percent since 1990. It’s time to reverse these trends, and not just because it’s cheaper.

A Couple Of Minnesota Court Updates Dakota County, MN Dis-trict Court goes online Dec. 3rd that allows access to civil, family and criminal documents at any time from a computer. Washington County went online for civil and family cases on Nov. 26, and crim-inal cases will be online in January, 2013. mncourts.gov/eCourtMN

BRB Motor Vehicle News Washington (State) Driving Records Effective October 1, 2012, the fee for a driving record in Washington (state) in-creased from $10.00 to $13.00. This fee increase affects all access methods and record types. There is

no fee increase passed along to vehicle records or collision reports. New Release of ACD in the Works The AAMVA Code Dic-tionary (ACD) is a transla-tion table used to exchange conviction and withdrawal information between the states' driver licensing au-thorities. The AAMVA

Code Dictionary (ACD) is copyrighted by the Ameri-can Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators (AAMVA). A primary function of the ACD is to enable the state to use the Commercial Driver's License Infor-mation System (CDLIS) to exchange convictions and withdrawals. Other applica-tions, such as the Problem

Driver Pointer System (PDPS), use these codes as well. Also, many states use the ACD to indicate out-of-state convictions on driving records. The most recent version is Release 4.0.0. However, the AAMVA is now in the process of finalizing a new-er release with fairly signif-icant changes. There will likely be 5 new codes add-

ed, 6 codes retired and sev-eral dozen with changes. At this point, the changes are still subject to final approv-al and have not yet been formally released. For an overview of these probable changes go to www.mvrdecoder.com.