National Citizen-Unit Tracking Database coming soon

[Brad Dolan <bdolan@USIT.NET>]

National Citizen Dossier System Being Quietly Set Up

That's what the headlines should be saying, anyway.  Instead
they're saying things like:

     (_Knoxville Journal_, 3/27/97)

     Governor's Budget Includes Money to Set Up Gang-Tracking
     Network

     [...]

     [A]s part of the governor's anti-gang proposals, he's
     proposing to spend $625,000 worth of state and federal money
     to set up a gang-tracking computer database and network.

     Four agents of the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation will be
     assigned to do nothing but gather and maintain information
     about gangs in the state's four regions.

     They will analyze and compile the information on computer
     for dissemination throughout the state, the Southeast, and
     the nation - but not for public use.

     Law enforcement agencies will be able to use it and update
     it.

     Information on the database could include a picture, a
     description, the gang affiliation, criminal convictions,
     crimes that a person is suspected in, and possible
     nicknames.

     [...]

Other press reports have indicated that the database will include
"domestic terrorist groups" and will incorporate a great deal of
additional data, such as a roster of vehicles which should be
given special attention at the now-innumberable roadblocks and
checkpoints.

The important thing to note is that - as I understand the
description of the program -  a person does not have to commit a
crime to be included in the database.  They just have to have
contact with a person or group which is already in it.

Didn't somebody named Jospeh McCarthy get himself in trouble over
this kind of thing?

bd