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June 06, 2007
Government Surveillance Data Used in Civil Cases
From Discourse.net:
Froomkin comments on an article in Inside Bay Area on how civil and divorce lawyers are using commuter records from the electronic toll collection system called FasTrak. The article notes:
Subpoenas that MediaNews obtained under the state Public Records Act turned up several cases over the last two years in which the Metropolitan Transportation Commission released FasTrak subscriber records in civil disputes. The records include logs of the date, exact time and bridge where a car using FasTrak rolls through a toll plaza at any of the eight Bay Area spans.
"Part of the reason Fred has not had success . . . is that he takes too much time off," claimed a woman who sought her husband's toll activity in one divorce case. "His transponder records . . . will show how little he works."
. . .
Another divorce lawyer jokingly pleaded with a Times reporter not to write this story, saying it could "ruin a great gig I've got going. "With the FasTrak data and maybe credit card receipts, you can put together anybody's life every day," said Oakland attorney Matthew Graham. "It's pretty damaging stuff you can come up with." He said FasTrak data recently helped him refute claims by a client's wife that she worked often from home - an issue in a dispute over visitation rights. Graham said he has considered giving up his own FasTrak account.
Since the start, transportation officials have sought to ease privacy concerns, highlighting a policy that bars release of customer data "except as required by law or ordered by a court of competent jurisdiction." McMillan said the policy is among the tightest of any e-toll system. Neither the privacy policy nor the customer license agreement explains that court orders may include subpoenas in civil cases, which do not require a judge's approval unless they are contested.
Currently, video surveillance footage is not as useful for these purposes because its not personally identifiable. However, with the emergence of video recognition systems or the combination of video surveillance and sensors (e.g., RFID subway card and a camera), it will only be a matter of time before government camera footage is used in the civil lawsuits. Nevertheless, there are plenty of civil cases where government footage could be useful, I wonder if cities like Chicago have ever turned over camera footage.
Posted by rshah at June 6, 2007 03:14 PM
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