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States reviving database search

TALLAHASSEE - When the federal government in April stopped funding a database that lets police quickly see public records and commercially collected information on Americans, privacy advocates celebrated what they saw as a victory against overzealousness in the fight against terrorism.

But a few states are pressing forward with a similar system, continuing to look for ways to quickly search through a trove of data - from driver's license photos to phone numbers to information about people's cars. Their argument in seeking to keep the Matrix database alive in some form: it's too important for solving crimes to give up on.

Florida, Ohio, Connecticut and Pennsylvania still use software that lets investigators quickly cull through much of the data about people that reside in cyberspace. However, without the federal grant for the Matrix data-sharing system, they won't be routinely searching through digital files from other states.

Privacy advocates still don't like the idea, saying government shouldn't have easy access to so much information about people who haven't done anything wrong.

But law officers bent on keeping the Matrix alive say the information is already out there anyway for companies to use for less noble purposes. Law enforcement has always used such information; it just never had a big computer search tool to quickly find links between people and places.

"The media uses that data, attorneys use it, banks use it," said Mark Zadra, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement agent in charge of the system.

Matrix - shorthand for Multistate Anti-Terrorism Information Exchange - was born as an anti-terrorism tool in the wake of 9/11.

Created by Florida law enforcement with a one-time drug-running pilot-turned-millionaire computer whiz named Hank Asher, it was conceived as a way for states to combine data they have on people - driving records and criminal histories, for example - with records from other states.

The company Asher founded, Seisint Inc., also added to Matrix information from the private sector, including some of what credit card companies collect such as names, addresses and Social Security numbers - though actual credit histories were not included.

Together, the program would give states a powerful tool that could link someone to several addresses or vehicles, and possibly to others who lived at those same houses or drove the same car.

When the federal grant for Matrix ended, the database officially ended. But Florida and the other states are still using its database-searching software. Florida is seeking companies to help build another, larger cache of information. And officials envision sharing that data with other states again.

Although Matrix was designed as a terrorism tool, Zadra said its main value has been for solving more ordinary crimes.

[Last modified July 11, 2005, 01:00:09]