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Police want access to site

Forums: General Discussion
Created on: 03/25/10 06:11 PM Views: 2122 Replies: 8
Thursday, March 25, 2010 at 6:11 PM

I want to bounce something off y'all. The office manager of my old high school wants to know if we can give the police access to our multi-year site. They often go to the high school to borrow yearbooks to look up a suspect/victim and the books never get returned.

Yes, the Sheriff is a classmate and joined a long time ago. The Chief of Police is a classmate but has not yet joined. Of course, both of them and any other officers that attended our high school can easily join and have access to whatever information is posted on a profile.

Maybe I'm looking for issues that will never arise, but what do I do if:
1. I'm asked to put officers as Guest Members for the purpose of surfing our site?

or,

2. I'm asked to provide contact information on a registered member where their information is hidden?

I would like to be prepared if these situations come up and I need an answer for the high school administration.

Thanks for any opinions offered,
Cheryl

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Thursday, March 25, 2010 at 6:44 PM - Response #1

Well I must admit, out of all the posts I see in front of me pending, I had to read this one first due to your title. Smile

I'm not an Attorney so my answer won't be worth much, but I will say that when Classmates join your web site there are no Terms & Conditions regarding what you will and won't do with information you obtain. When you, the Administrators, build sites here we have Terms and Conditions governing what we can and can't do with your information and the information provided by your Classmates. But you have no terms regarding what you will or won't do with information unless you've created those terms yourself.

So, what I'm saying is you can most likely legally turn over information should it be requested of you. Whether you want to do that or not would be your decision. It's possible a court could mandate that you turn over information, although pretty rare overall.

Just FYI since we're on the topic, we've had 3 incidents here at Class Creator so far, one was the US Military requiring that we remove some photos posted in a Classmate Profile that gave up classified location information, and we've had to participate in 2 homicide investigations. That's about the last thing I ever thought about when Class Creator first began, but once you get a few hundred thousand people on board, the odds are these things start coming up somewhat routinely. Hopefully you won't have many issues on your own site, but I think the bottom line is you need to decide how to handle it if you do.

Maybe somebody more qualified here can give some advice?


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Thursday, March 25, 2010 at 8:30 PM - Response #2

I would consult with a lawyer. As the Root Site Admin., I, personally, would not give the police access as a guest to the site. I would not give them any information that the classmate has hidden....unless I was court ordered.. and instruct my other Site Admins to do the same. Since you have cops who have already joined your site..they have access to some your classmate's information anyway. It's a sticky situation.
On another subject..kinda of related is: I have many retired police officers who graduated from my HS. Most of them don't want their information on the site,so the nasty people they put in jail, can't find them and their families. I guess your lucky they(cops) even want to join your site. We only have a few cops that don't care if their information is on the site.
If you are concerned, I would work with a lawyer and draw up some guild lines on how to handle informal and court ordered requests for information on classmates registered on your website.
Good Luck..and keep us updated!

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Thursday, March 25, 2010 at 8:56 PM - Response #3

I would give up nothing - and I am a former Police Detective and Private Investigator.

Let them ge a court order - and go after Brad and Kyle! LOL

Loan them an annual?
Ha!
Maybe with the police chief's or sheriff's service weapon and badge as collateral!
I prize my annuals - I won't even take them to reunions!

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Edited 03/25/10 9:01 PM
Thursday, March 25, 2010 at 10:35 PM - Response #4

I also am no Attorney....however, I believe that when we set up our websites, and beg classmates to join, they have a reasonable expectation of privacy. In a world so consumed by law suits for such frivolous things as the "coffee was HOT" for god's sake...I would not give up anything...If the sheriff is a classmate and has joined the website it is there for him to "take" as he wants...

Let him take the hit!

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Thursday, March 25, 2010 at 11:08 PM - Response #5

I agree with Jim.

If they join, you are free and clear. If they want to be only guests due to protection, I would like to think that detectives/cops could find what they need without using a reunion site. If desperate, then bring on the court order. You monitor and control the site with anything inappropriate. If the classmate is stupid enough to exposes crimes, Thats a different situation. If serious, then it is your call and a moral obligation. Our sites are created for fun and everyone does deserve reasonable privacy, as he stated. Didn't have to do a repeat, just trying to help with gaining a majority opinion.

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Friday, March 26, 2010 at 1:06 AM - Response #6

Can't we each password our individual profile? Then we administrators can honestly say - that one is locked down and cannot be opened except with specific permission from that individual?
Lara Greenville High

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Friday, March 26, 2010 at 10:29 AM - Response #7

Great response. This puts the responsibility on the classmates. I would never give out the info only under court order. Classmates control their own access with their password.
Classmate Jimmy

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Sunday, March 28, 2010 at 11:35 PM - Response #8

Brad, my first thought is that I do have an obligation to protect personal information of our members. However, I do add Guest Members that have full access to the site and I may not always know the "reason" the guest is joining.

Thank you, Darlene, Steve, Jim and Lori. I spoke with one of my classmates that's also the Sheriff and while sitting in the DA's office he advised to only provide hidden info by court order. While he's really enjoying the site and is a registered member, the only info he openly provided is his city. But, he's an elected official . . .

I do have some law officials that provide minimal information and one classmate that I had to completely delete from the site as though he never existed -- some kind of high level security position.

Thank you all for your help. I'm sorta glad this came up so that at least I am prepared in case it does ever happen.

Steve, I wouldn't loan my yearbooks either. Don't know that weapons and badges are enough collateral!

In appreciation,
Cheryl

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Edited 03/28/10 11:38 PM
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