Watchdog panel hunts suppliers of MATRIX data

Utah's homeland security chief Verdi White II is confident that four confidential state databases have all been purged from the controversial MATRIX super computer database in Florida.

But some other public databases remain in MATRIX, and now a state oversight committee, meeting for the first time Tuesday, wants to know which state and county agencies have also provided "public" information under Utah's government records laws.

"The rumor mill continues to grow that there are more than just those four" databases in MATRIX, said Senate Majority Leader Michael Waddoups, R-Taylorsville. "We should check further and see if any county agencies were participating, too."

The confidential databases provided to and then purged from MATRIX include criminal history, prison files, drivers' licenses and motor vehicle records.

But MATRIX is unique in that it meshes confidential databases accessible only to law enforcement with public data accessible to anyone —things like birth and death records, marriage and divorce histories, and property transactions. The system also incorporates databases compiled by banks, insurance companies, credit bureaus and other businesses.

Gary Doxey, chief of staff to Gov. Olene Walker, told the committee the Department of Corrections has already complied with requests from MATRIX under the Government Records Access and Management Act for public information in its files beyond the confidential databases first sent in July 2003.

Doxey, the chairman of the MATRIX Review Committee, promised he would find out what other state agencies had also received GRAMA requests for public data before the committee meets again on March 16 — two weeks after the end of the legislative session.

"I am pledging the governor will not do anything without legislative approval," he said.

That is certainly a concern to Sen. Gene Davis, D-Salt Lake, who cited the situation in Georgia where the governor ordered MATRIX unplugged, but law enforcement continued to download information for months afterward.

Utah's oversight committee, composed of three lawmakers, a deputy attorney general, one state agency head, a private citizen and Doxey, spent their first meeting creating a laundry list of questions they want answered in the weeks ahead.

Among the questions:

• In an information age, should policymakers rethink what constitutes a "public record?"