States plot access to mapping data

Around the United States, police departments, county planning agencies and other government agencies are developing extensive systems to apply their data to maps. Computer systems called geographic information systems, or GIS, give agencies the power to do complex mapping.

The Chicago Police Department uses GIS to track neighborhood crime. St. Louis uses mapping to study redevelopment and plot census data. Some of these agencies make maps available online. Some government agencies charge large sums of money for actual copies of GIS data because they are valuable to real estate companies, developers and marketing firms.

The substantive conflicts over GIS access involve fees and the desire of governmental bodies to turn these systems into cash cows.

The Ohio Attorney General opined that if “the Department of Natural Resources stores, produces, organizes, or compiles public records in such a manner that enhances the value of data or information included therein, it may charge for copies an amount that includes the additional costs of copying the information in such enhanced or ‘value-added’ format.”

Another barrier to GIS information came After September 11, when many agencies decided that making mapping data public could leave them vulnerable to terrorist attacks. On the federal front, maps showing pipeline locations, water supplies and nuclear power plants were no longer available to the public because of national security concerns.

States also are looking at legislation that could limit access to GIS data. In Illinois, a senate bill exempting computer geographic system information from the state’s freedom of information act became law in July 2002.

A majority of states have GIS laws on the books. The statutes appear in scattered sections of each state’s code.
Some GIS laws, such as Arizona’s, are codified in the public lands code. Alaska’s GIS law is included in the code containing the civil procedure rules.
Florida’s law is included in the section on communications and data processing. California includes rules governing disclosure of mapping records in its open records law.

Maryland’s GIS law tries to strike a balance between the financial interests of government and the desire of the public for open access. The systems, which are developed with public funds, “should not be unreasonably withheld from private commercial users.” However, GIS “should not provide a public subsidy to private commercial users.”

A Maryland agency may sell a GIS database “for a fee that reasonably reflects the cost of creating, developing and reproducing the product.” The agency may reduce or waive fees for products and services used for a “public purpose.”

The Supervisor of Public Records in Massachusetts addressed this issue of GIS and money-making in a 1996 opinion: “The temptation for public officials to increase revenue by sale of valuable information, such as that contained in a GIS database, is understandable. However, the premise behind the Public Records Law, and other open government laws on the federal and state level, is that the public has an absolute right to access public information held by the government. The public should not be required to pay a premium for access to information which it has already paid to create and maintain through taxes.”