Coming soon: more closure

From the Winter 2000 issue of The News Media & The Law, page 2.

Several years ago, a former colleague at the St. Paul Pioneer Press asked me to assist him with a story he was writing about a single Minnesota mother who was dying of cancer. The woman's ex-husband owed $97,000 in child support for her 16-year-old daughter. Social services workers had been unable, or unwilling, to trace this deadbeat dad. The woman thought the father may have moved to Tennessee.

I went to the state DMV office in Nashville, where I was attending law school, and in less than a minute found the man's address in Knoxville.

Two recollections about that day still stand out: First, there were at least a dozen ordinary citizens standing in line seeking access to public DMV data. Second, I thought that if I was able to find the man in less than a minute, why on earth couldn't the state of Minnesota find him? Would the dying mother have been able to locate the missing father without our help? Probably not.

There lies the tragedy and frustration of the U.S. Supreme Court's January 12 decision in Reno v. Condon upholding the federal Drivers Privacy Protection Act.

Forget all of the legal arguments about Congress' right to regulate states via the Commerce Clause, and forget the unsubstantiated claims that the public release of DMV records leads to rampant crime and harassment. The bottom line is that a valuable source of public information has been shut down, and privacy advocates are setting their sights next on voter registration, property tax and land transaction records.

A few examples of stories that no longer could be reported because of the Supreme Court's decision on the DPPA:

• In 1993, WCCO-TV in Minneapolis conducted a five-month investigation into automobile title laundering. The station documented how a little-known loophole in Minnesota's titling law cost consumers millions, encouraged national auto-theft rings and jeopardized highway safety. The law allowed cars that had been wrecked in other states to be issued "clean" titles in Minnesota. Reporters relied on DMV records to track down the addresses of current and former owners of rebuilt wrecks to inform them that their cars had been totaled. They also used the records to determine which automobile dealers sold the rebuilt wrecks without informing the unsuspecting victims.

• In 1991, the Miami Herald documented how the state of Florida had failed in its efforts to keep drunk drivers off the highways. Using DMV records, the reporter found nearly 500 drivers in four counties who each had six or more DUI convictions, but were still driving on Florida highways.

• In the early 1990s, three Northwest Airlines pilots flew from Fargo to Minneapolis-St. Paul while drunk. The Star-Tribune later determined that 41 licensed Minnesota pilots had been penalized for alcohol-related driving offenses, yet continued to fly commercial airliners with no restrictions. The story was startling and led to changes in Federal Aviation Administration regulations. (Minnesota was one of a handful of states that created a media "exemption" from the DPPA in an attempt to make sure newsrooms had access to the entire DMV data base. It is unlikely these attempts to circumvent the DPPA will hold up as a result of the Supreme Court's decision.)

• In 1977, when hundreds of masked Ku Klux Klan members marched through the downtown streets of Tallahassee, Fla., the Tallahassee Democrat took down license plate numbers of the cars and trucks klan members parked in a state government parking ramp. The newspaper published names, addresses and occupations of klan members. The Klan's influence in the community dramatically receded.

• In 1986, the Orlando Sentinel used drivers' records to locate dozens of workers at Kennedy Space Center. Interviews with the workers at their homes and away from the space center exposed management, quality control and safety problems at NASA that led to the explosion of the Shuttle Challenger. The employees would not have been allowed to talk to reporters at their place of work.

The first three examples demonstrate that public officials were not using DMV records for the purpose the information was gathered -- ensuring that vehicles and drivers do not present a public hazard. The only protection the public has against government incompetence is the ability to scrutinize these records.

Supporters of the DPPA have tailored the justification for shutting down records according to the evolving political climate. Sen. Barbara Boxer, (D-Calif), introduced the bill as an amendment to the Omnibus Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994. Supporters hailed the amendment as the answer to criminal stalking and harassment of women. Crime was the hottest national issue in 1994.

The political climate has shifted, however. Concerns about safety evolved over the past six years into a general assertion that our names,

where we live and the color of our eyes are "private" information. They are not.

These days, any state attorney general or governor can win support by promising constituents he or she will protect their "privacy." Legislatures nationwide are considering measures that would shut down access to any public record that identifies an individual that is sold to a commercial entity or provided to a mass public.

How did this steady erosion of access to public documents happen? Because of the computer age, data held by state agencies that for decades was open to the public suddenly became useful. Once it became useful, people started using it -- including direct marketers and telemarketers. The public became alarmed and annoyed by the sheer volume of commercial solicitations they received.

In coming months, watch for legislative and congressional efforts to close voters registration, property tax and land transaction records.

When these efforts occur, journalists must be vigilant about reporting both sides of the story. In the past, reporters have tended to report without rebuttal scary, unsubstantiated stories about using public records to harass and stalk. Reporters and editorial writers must also tell the public what they'll miss if access to public records disappears.

-- Lucy Dalglish