New York opts out of Matrix crime database
Program created after September 11 to enable information exchange
From Jonathan Wald
CNN
NEW YORK (CNN) -- New York pulled out of the Matrix program Thursday, making it the latest state to withdraw participation from the multistate, anti-terrorism information exchange.
"The uncertainty of federal funds to support the program, a concern over the program's potential benefits, given so many other states' withdrawal, contributed to our decision to withdraw," Lynn Rasic, a spokeswoman for the New York State Office of Public Security, told CNN.
"Concerns over individual privacy was also a concern we raised," Rasic said.
Eleven of the 16 states that joined the Matrix program after it was created in November, 2002, have since pulled out.
Only Florida, the founding member state; Pennsylvania, Michigan, Ohio and Connecticut remain active participants in the database.
Matrix, the shortened name for the Multistate Anti-Terrorism Information Exchange, was conceived after the September 11 terrorist attacks as a way to allow states to exchange information more effectively in their investigations into terrorism and domestic crime.
The program, which is run by the Boca Raton, Florida-based private company Seisint, allows states to share criminal histories, driver's license information, vehicle registration records, prison files and public data records. Law enforcement agencies can cross-reference the information with up to 20 billion records held by Seisint.
Matrix has drawn criticism from civil liberties groups, who fear the database can be used to investigate innocent people who have never been suspected of a crime.
On October 30, 2003, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) filed simultaneous requests in Connecticut, Michigan, New York, Ohio and Pennsylvania for information about those states' participation in the Matrix program.
"It's not clear what private records these states have access to. The whole system is shrouded in mystery," Barry Steinhardt, director of technology and liberty at ACLU, told CNN.
Steinhardt was pleased to see New York drop out of the program.
"It's yet another nail in the coffin of Matrix, a vehicle that allows the government to know the most intimate details of our lives without supervision or a court order," he added.
The project coordinator for Matrix admitted he was "disappointed" to see New York leave the program.
"I still believe Matrix is an effective tool for law enforcement agencies," Clay Jester told CNN.
"Our clearly stated privacy policy may not have passed muster for the ACLU but it did for many states and it's important to remember that Matrix does not collect information, it integrates records from pre-existing sources," Jester said.
Matrix received $12 million in federal funds, $4 million from the Department of Justice and $8 million from the Department of Homeland Security.
"The funding will last us till November 2004," said Jester. "If there's no additional funding at that point, the states could choose to fund their own participation out of their own budgets or the project may be terminated."
In September, 2002, Congress voted to halt a similar Pentagon program. Total Information Awareness (TIA) was based on the concept that compiling as much information as possible about as many people as possible in a large-scale database would help thwart terrorist activity.
Government officials would scour the database for information or patterns of information, a process known as "data mining," in an attempt to identify terrorists.
A statement on the Matrix Web site claims no ties to the Pentagon program. "Matrix is not a substitute for the TIA Project and there is no relationship to that system," the statement says. "Instead, it is a query/response based information source for use by trained and screened civilian law enforcement as a part of an active criminal investigation."
