Security

Texas "TIA"?

Texas Governor Rick Perry is "gathering massive amounts of information" into the "most exhaustive… database in state history." The system is supposed to be used to catch crooks and terrorists. But the database isn’t being run by state law enforcement. "Instead, control of TDEx system, and the power to decide who can use it, resides […]

Texas Governor Rick Perry is "gathering massive amounts of information" into the "most exhaustive... database in state history." The system is supposed to be used to catch crooks and terrorists. But the database isn't being run by state law enforcement. "Instead, control of TDEx system, and the power to decide who can use it, resides in the governor’s office," the Texas Observer reports in a must-read story.

Walker_cast

That gives Perry, his staff, future governors, and their staffs potential access to a trove of sensitive data on everything from ongoing criminal investigations to police incident reports and even traffic stops. In their zeal to assemble TDEx,
Perry and his homeland security director, Steve McCraw, have plunged ahead with minimal oversight from law enforcement agencies, and even DPS [Texas' Department of Public Safety] is skittish about the direction the project has taken...

Texas agencies already have plenty of information on all of us—driver’s licenses, fingerprints, and proofs of address, details we provide every time we renew our licenses, register a car, or vote... There’s also a less discernible realm of information that should perhaps concern the citizens of Texas more. In the course of doing their work, police agencies vacuum up enormous piles of tips, rumors, innuendo, guesses, false reports, and other useless material that they sift through to solve crimes and identify criminals.

Access to this massive trove of information—files on cases in progress, notes about “persons of interest” who may prove to be of no interest at all, details involving confidential informants—is closely guarded for good reason. Information worthless for solving a crime might be useful in other contexts. Like politics or personal revenge... *

  • The federal rules apply to states that accept federal money and ensure the
    integrity of law enforcement efforts. Under federal rules, a database like TDEx
    must be run by a criminal justice agency. According to the FBI
    and DPS    , Texas Homeland Security is not a criminal justice agency.*

Of course, none of this would be quite so disturbing, if Gov. Perry didn't have a history of using local law enforcement for political purposes. Unfortunately, he does. Back in '03, for example, he sent state troopers into a neonatal intensive care unit, in order to corral a Democrat into a vote on his Congressional redistricting plan, which ultimately gave more seats to Perry's fellow Republicans.

(High five: Kris)