Broward County public records on internet

Should you be able to look up the details of your neighbors marital problems online? Or look up someone’s criminal history? How about civil suits?

Currently if there is a court record, you can find many of them online. But the details of that record are not usually visible, just the document number which includes cover page.  Broward County announced today that all documents will go online to save on space and storage costs. They readily admit the task of blocking out personal information such as social security numbers will be a bear. With over 25 million documents, do you think they will get it right the first time?

Anyone can look up these records by going down to the courthouse now. In my opinion we should leave it that way. Make them all digital, but still require the general public to drive downtown to view anything other than what is offered online today. Why? I think we need to err on the side of caution and privacy; make it harder for people to find out personal information about anyone at will, not easier.   We’re opening up a pandora’s box when we make all legal data available to anyone, any time, for any reason.

This page says what cannot be made publicly available http://www.broward.org/records/cri03301.htm
How can you make a difference to bring about change? contact your  the records division

http://www.broward.org/records/cri01600.htm

write commissioners

http://www.broward.org/countygov.htm

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