Sunday, July 22, 2012


Not sure I understand this logic. Once data has been acquired by a prosecutor it is all open to the public? Could the students (including those who didn't know about their records being subpoenaed) hire a lawyer to work out a confidentiality agreement?
Florida judge: FERPA does not apply to admission records held by prosecutor
July 21, 2012 by Dissent
Educational records in the possession of prosecutors during a criminal investigation are not confidential and can be released to the public, a Florida judge has ruled.
The ruling, by Judge Marc L. Lubet of Florida’s Ninth Judicial Circuit, came in a case involving records at Florida A&M University that had been used in a criminal investigation into hazing at the university.
The university had originally turned over the records, which included students’ undergraduate admission applications, after the records were subpoenaed by prosecutors in December 2011.
Read more on SPLC.


Not much modification to my Data Mining and Data Analysis classes, but I expect a few more Criminal Justice majors will take the class...
July 21, 2012
Top 14 Government Social Media Initiatives
Information Week: "Law enforcement agencies across the nation are using social media to aid their investigations, according to a survey by LexisNexis Risk Solutions. The survey, of more than 1,200 law enforcement professionals with federal, state, and local agencies, found that 83% of the respondents are using social media, particularly Facebook and YouTube, to further their investigations. And of those not doing so, 74% intend to start using social media as a tool within the next year, which would raise the usage rate to about 95%. More than two-thirds (67%) of respondents believe that social media helps solve crimes more quickly. The most common uses of social media among those who do it include identifying persons of interest (85%) and their associates (75%), identifying criminal activity (76%) and its location (66%), and gathering photos or statements as corroborating evidence (61%)."

No comments: