Georgia decides against crime database [View All]

[Judi Lynn]

Tuesday, October 21, 2003 · Last updated 12:17 p.m. PT

Georgia decides against crime database

By KRISTEN WYATT
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER

ATLANTA -- Georgia will not join a sweeping crime database that tracks personal details of even law-abiding citizens, Gov. Sonny Perdue decided Tuesday, citing cost and privacy concerns.

The decision to withdraw from the multistate Matrix database came a day after state Attorney General Thurbert Baker said it would be illegal for Georgia to release its driver's license records to the private company putting the database together.

The Matrix database, controlled by a Florida company called Seisint Inc., was billed as a speedy way for law enforcement agencies to find records.

But privacy rights advocates, including former Georgia Rep. Bob Barr, a Republican, took issue with the plan. The database would track all citizens, not just people accused of a crime, and the information would include credit information, marriages and divorces, even fingerprints and Social Security numbers. (snip/...)

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