MATRIX in Utah deleted — for now

A committee looking into Utah's participation in MATRIX was unanimous: The state should stay out of the controversial supercomputer database until adequate oversight has been established.

The problem was defining what "adequate oversight" means.

Does it mean a citizens committee or a legislative committee or some combination of the two? Or could "elected officials" ensure safeguards are in place to protect citizen privacy and prevent abuse of the data by overzealous police?

"Elected officials were involved before, i.e., the governor," noted Sen. Michael Waddoups, R-Taylorsville, referring to former Gov. Mike Leavitt, who signed Utah up for the data-sharing program without explaining the program to lawmakers or the public.

Members of the Multi-State Anti-Terrorism Information Exchange (MATRIX) Review Committee decided the Legislature will determine "adequate oversight." And it will be decided in public hearings.

That means MATRIX is probably dead in Utah until lawmakers reconvene in January 2005. Gov. Olene Walker, who suspended the state's involvement two months ago after being blind-sided with news of the state's participation, could always reject the committee's findings and order MATRIX restored. Or she could place the issue on a legislative special session.

During her monthly news conference on KUED, which had started taping before the committee hearing concluded, Walker said that there should be ways for law enforcement to share and analyze information to better combat terrorism and other crime. However, the amount of personal information that is public — most of the data that MATRIX utilized was already public through Government Records Access Management Act (GRAMA) requests to different government agencies — should also be reconsidered.

"The bigger question needs to be how we get law enforcement the information they need to protect the people while also protecting privacy rights," she said. "We need to look at this and other programs, as well as the GRAMA laws. . . . There are certain areas of individual information that we should have the right to protect."

It was clear the committee had little appetite for MATRIX in its current form. There were concerns that lawmakers and Walker had not been briefed about the state's involvement, about whether the potential benefits of quick access to information on citizens outweighed potential abuses of privacy rights, about how Utah's confidential information might be used by other states and the absence of any independent oversight of those using the information.

In fact, the lack of independent oversight was an overriding concern of all members of the committee.

Waddoups said MATRIX may indeed be a valuable tool to help law enforcement thwart crime and terrorism, but sometimes issues rise to the level where public concern outweighs the advantages.

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