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The FBI's Criminal Database is Filling with Non-Criminals

posted by LaminatorX on Tuesday September 02 2014, @08:28PM   
from the INSERTion-of-the-innocent dept.

Blackmoore writes:

Tim Cushing at Techdirt writes: The FBI's Criminal Database Is Filling Up With Non-Criminals And No One In Law Enforcement Seems To Care

America has long held the position as the world's foremost imprisoner of its own citizens. Around 2 million people are incarcerated in America, giving us nearly one-fourth of the world's total prison population. Spending any length of time in prison is a good way to destroy your future. But even if you never spend a day inside — or even end up facing charges — there's a good chance you'll still be facing a bleak future should you ever have the misfortune to be booked.

Over the past 20 years, authorities have made more than a quarter of a billion arrests, the Federal Bureau of Investigation estimates. As a result, the FBI currently has 77.7 million individuals on file in its master criminal database—or nearly one out of every three American adults.

Between 10,000 and 12,000 new names are added each day.

This master database is accessed by thousands of employers running pre-hire background checks, as well as by banks and landlords. One moment of stupidity, even if it never results in time served, could derail someone's life. Arrests are damaging, even if it's ultimately determined that no criminal activity occurred. How many thousands of people are being turned down for loans or rejected by landlords simply because a cop made up BS charges to arrest a photographer or deployed handcuffs instead of responsible crowd control?

At what point will the data contain everyone in the 99% At what point can we expect to corrupt the database with an overrun of data?

• ...and a busted clock is right twice a day ...and a busted clock is right twice a day (Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 03 2014, @03:35AM

  by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 03 2014, @03:35AM (#88754)

  Objectivists everywhere are gloating

  Oblig xkcd [xkcd.com]
  If you don't have tooltips enabled, right-click the image and view the properties (alt-text).

  -- gewg_

  Parent

  Starting Score:	0		points
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• Re:...and a busted clock is right twice a day Re:...and a busted clock is right twice a day (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 03 2014, @08:09AM

  by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 03 2014, @08:09AM (#88807)

  And here's the non-mobile version of that link:

  http://xkcd.com/1049/ [xkcd.com]

  So much for the question of why a mobile version of a web site is a bad thing. [soylentnews.org]

  Parent

  • What does the non-mobile page gain you? (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 03 2014, @05:28PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 03 2014, @05:28PM (#88996)

    ...besides bloat?

    -- gewg_

    Parent