08/22/08 05:05 pm ET
From the "technology is only as good as the user" file:
The Texas Department of Public Safety recently complained that counties fail to update the state's criminal database, which prosecutors and law enforcement use to check on an individual's criminal history and which agencies and businesses use to conduct criminal background checks on applicants. Counties input just 69 percent of criminal charges into the system, according to an assessment reported on by The Dallas Morning News. The paper reported:
Mr. Bradley, the Central Texas district attorney, said the DPS system's incompleteness causes prosecutors, ignorant of a conviction, to be more lenient than they should. He said the biggest threat is to officers making traffic stops. If they can't get "accurate and timely dispatching information" about a driver, they don't know when to take precautions, he said.The DPS database also is used to screen schoolteachers and volunteers who work with children, and caregivers for the sick and frail. Gaps can affect background checks run by employers on job applicants and landlords checking on prospective tenants. Everyone from job applicants to people trying to adopt children or buy guns can be affected, Ms. Klein said. No one knows how many Texans didn't get a job because an acquittal or dismissal wasn't in the system, she said.
This link between the efficacy of a computer system and the aptitude of its users was underscored by the case of Erich Scherfen, who served in the first Gulf war and who is trying to clear his name off the national terror watch list. It would seem Scherfen, a Muslim, has a legitimate beef with the Homeland Security Department for mistakenly including his name on the list. An ongoing lawsuit may clear the matter up.
But what's apparent is that a lack of attention to the accuracy of the data that computers, which governments increasingly use to make serious decisions affecting our lives, is becoming a an even bigger problem. Tech Insider blogged about this issue just a few months ago. Just how bad is it?
How confident are you in the accuracy of the information in your agencies' databases?
COMMENTS
This is a relatively easy issue. The present approach here is 180 degrees wrong. It would not be difficult to develop a system that would track and log criminal activity in each county without having to depend on input from individuals and then be dynamically linked back to the State's database. I presume that all of the data is public record and thus could be gleaned on an almost immediate basis, once it is made part of a permanent record. It appears that the present system is fatally (maybe literally!) flawed and can easily be corrected. What is a human life worth? Fixing this problem could help protect both the public and law enforcement!
Richard 08/25/08 02:37 pm ET
I worked for a coalition of school districts which were required to submit detailed information to the state and U.S. departments of education. I still remember the time I went to one school district to help him get his information transmitted to the state department of education. He had a list of students in his hand that had been kicked back to him by the state as "invalid records". "These students were here last year but weren't here this year. What exit code do I put for them?" I looked at him, puzzled. "Where did they go?" "I don't know." "So put the code for 'Unknown' in there." "But then they'll be marked as dropouts." "Are they?" "I don't know." "Aren't you the student information officer? Maybe you should call the school secretaries and find out where those students went." "I don't have time for that."
Eventually he coded each and every one of those students as "Transferred to out-of-state school". So now you know why, for so many years, schools have been reporting a 5% or less dropout rate, when sometimes half of all high school freshmen don't graduate.
In short: I'm not comfortable with the validity of the data I'm familiar with *at all*. I can understand this man's problem -- he had been handed an unfunded mandate with no funding to hire staff to implement it, so he just gave them the finger and coded any old arbitrary thing that wouldn't penalize his school district. Multiply times thousands of school districts nationwide, and you'll see why I believe most educational statistics touted nationwide by politicians to justify one thing or another are just plain baloney. Garbage in, garbage out...
Badtux 08/22/08 07:38 pm ET