zlacker

I'm not sure the goal of this project but collecting criminal arrest information and making it public is not going to help anyone who's been wrongfully arrested, or anyone who's had their charge expunged. I'm fairly sure that storing and exposing this data improperly without respect to subsequent court actions is in violation of the law.

>>chrisc+(OP)
What law would be violated? What law would one use to infringe freedom of speech to continue to publish these records as a private citizen? Failing all else, one can host outside the jurisdiction.

>>toomuc+u
Records can be expunged, sometimes automatically per plea agreements. And yet these records would live on in this dataset.

>>psycho+T
I agree that that is a very valid concern. I’d hope the data is anonymized (even though I recognize anonymized data is not perfect).

>>chrisc+(OP)
> is in violation of the law

It's not clear to me that this is true for all data about an arrest/charge.

Courts have upheld that arrest mugshots and fingerprints taken at jail intake time both can be retained by the law enforcement system even if the arrested person is exonerated (acquitted, charged dropped, etc).

>>toomuc+u
It’s not always about flexing our rights when it comes at the expense of others. Sometimes it’s about treating others the way you would like to be treated. Even if you’re under no obligation to treat them kindly. Even if you’re entitled not to treat them kindly.

Surely there is a way to achieve the stated goal of the project without the collateral damage of exposing information that individuals might, for whatever reason, prefer not be published online.

>>thephy+u1
Retained, sure, but publicly-disseminated in a PII database? There are laws about handling sensitive data like that.

>>bsanr2+93
There is also the need to not have secret arrests, so arrest records are public.

>>thephy+u1
Each jurisdiction differs on this dramatically. But the law enforcement system is quite different from some random GitHub repo.

>>srouss+34
Each jurisdiction has very distinct regulations on this. It is not some trivial thing to handwave away. You are likely in violation of the law for retaining and publishing this info regardless of subsequent court actions. And anyone who is harmed by this info could rightfully sue you for defamation.

>>chrisc+I4
I unaware of any legal authority one could use to remove public information from GitHub, even after expungement of the public record itself. These are not works covered under copyright that a DMCA takedown notice would apply to.

You’re still correct that datasets such as these might need to be globally distributed, instead of hosted with a single commercial provider.

>>jwilbe+c1
You are also opening yourself up to severe defamation lawsuits by publishing any information that is incorrect.

>>chrisc+95
How would that claim work unless one is shown to have altered a public record provided by a court? I’d think such a claim would be dismissed upon as much as one review of discovery if it’s shown that you lawfully obtained the records and otherwise didn’t tamper with said records.

Edit: or am I thinking of libel?

>>toomuc+25
Criminal records are owned by the jurisdiction which served the case. These are governed by state and federal laws. You are also subject to severe defamation lawsuits and anyone contributing to this repo can be held personally culpable. This is not about copyright.

EDIT I'm not going to do your legal homework for you, but this is South Carolina, for example. As stated above, each of the 50 United States has various laws and regulations with regards to arrest and criminal records. Violate those laws at your own risk, but if a lawyer is not being involved in this project on an ongoing basis, I highly recommend anyone to avoid: https://www.scjustice.org/criminal-records-come-back-haunt-e...

That's just about respecting expungement (30 day notice must takedown). If you improperly record or transcode the data from the scrape and that results in someone being attributed to something that the record never showed, you are subject to full weight of defamation lawsuits. If you unwittingly expose someone's private information that is involved in witness protection, for example, you can be subject to legal and civil penalties: https://www.gsa.gov/reference/gsa-privacy-program/rules-and-...

>>psycho+T
That has no impact on what a private citizen can publish. If someone assaulted someone 20 year ago but legally got the record expunged you are absolutely allowed to publish full page newspaper ads every day talking about the assault.

>>elliek+O2
Seeking accountability for those in positions of power, and those who abuse those positions of power, is not an activity I would define as flexing. It is our duty as both citizens and human beings.

I am sympathetic to minimizing collateral damage of the innocent, or even those without a chronic history of abuse (we should never be judged by the single worst day of our lives), but also believe in the vigorous application of sunlight on the nefarious.

>>chrisc+(OP)
That's pretty much what mugshots are. Companies already slurp up those mugshots and publish them and extort those arrested to pay to take them down.