US Department Of Education Now Investigating Florida Sheriff's Student 'Pre-Crime' Program

from the Sheriff-showing-some-indicators-of-criminal-activity dept

The Pasco County (FL) Sheriff's Office decided to bring some of its predictive policing nonsense indoors. It also started looking for smaller targets. The program used to harass residents over things like uncut lawns and missing mailbox numbers was extended to schoolchildren, who were subjected to the same sort of spreadsheet bullshit. Low grades? Miss a few school days? Victim of domestic violence?

According to the Pasco County Sheriff "juvenile intelligence analysts," these were all risk factors that could signify future criminal behavior. The Sheriff claimed it wasn't trying to pre-crime children, but its own documentation said "analysts" should use the so-called "predictors" to "identify at-risk youth who are destined to a life of crime."

Not only is the program arguably morally wrong, it's also generally wrong. Predictive policing rarely works as intended since it relies on skewed data. Those inputs produce more skewed data, sending officers into the same areas they already believe criminal activity will occur and aims them at the same people they've already assumed are criminals. It's basically confirmation_bias.xls. But this program targets kids and uses data it's not clear the Sheriff's Office has any legal right to access.

That means the program may also be legally wrong. As in "illegal." Analysis of the program and the data-sharing agreements with schools by student privacy advocates resulted in the determination that this access to student data without parental consent violated FERPA (Family Education Rights and Privacy Act) -- a federal student privacy law passed in 1974.

This conclusion prompted Congressional reps to step in and request a federal investigation into Pasco County's pee-wee league pre-crime program. Four months after that request was made by Representative Robert C. Scott, the US Department of Education is moving forward with its review of the program.

The Tampa Bay Times reported in November that the school district shared information on student grades, discipline and attendance with the Sheriff’s Office, which used the data to compile a secret list of schoolchildren it believed could “fall into a life of crime.”

The federal education department is now looking into the arrangement, a spokesman said Friday.

The investigation follows calls for a review by U.S. Rep. Robert C. Scott, who leads the House Committee on Education and Labor. In a statement, Scott said he was “encouraged” that the education department had accepted his request. He called the Pasco program “disturbing.”

Now that the federal government is involved, the Pasco County Sheriff's Office appears to be hastily revising its program. While it still claims the program does not label kids as criminals (despite what its own documentation says), it has started to change what data it accesses and how it obtains that access.

The law enforcement agency said that deputies, who serve in the role as school resource officers, do have access to student grades. But the agency said for the first time that students were being added to any list for review only if they had committed a crime. Aside from its school resource deputies, the agency said that Sheriff’s Office employees can see whether a student has been flagged by the district’s early warning system — not whether they had been flagged for a specific reason, such as grades or attendance.

Starting to do the right thing after months of negative press and multiple investigations isn't really doing the right thing. It's just damage control. But the Sheriff's Office already spent months or years screwing up and that's going to still come to light even if it's not trying to stop violating federal regulations.

And the Sheriff's Office still seems pretty defensive for an agency that believes it's done nothing wrong. Rather than simply defer comment until the investigation concludes, the Sheriff's Office issued a multi-paragraph comment to the Tampa Bay Times that starts out by attacking the credibility of the paper whose initial report was based entirely on the Sheriff Office's own documents.

We have no additional comment beyond what was previously provided to the Tampa Bay Times. However, we’re proud of our partnership with Pasco County Schools and the work our members do to ensure safety to students, staff and families in our community. Additionally, I’m providing you with the below, which details much of the misinformation the Times has misconstrued through the course of their reporting and sets the record straight on facts vs slant.

As always, it is our sincere hope that the Times uses this opportunity to set the record straight on their own reporting and the previous fallacies they’ve published.

The statement does its own misleading by claiming the things the Sheriff's Office is doing now are the things it has always done, despite that clearly not being the case. It's trying to backdate its culpability with this statement and that may work for small parts of the court of public opinion, but it's not going to change the course of the ongoing investigation.

Even if one is inclined to take the Sheriff's Office at its word, the fact that it "only" determined 330 students to be "at risk" for future criminal behavior is still disturbing. While identifying at-risk students can be helpful and perhaps head off future criminal acts, the Office's predictive policing program mainly serves up constant harassment to anyone selected by the software as a potential criminal. Rather than deter criminal activity, the program makes it impossible for people to break free of the criminal justice deathcycle by subjecting them to meaningless citations, extra court appearances, and frequent visits from deputies who apparently have nothing better to do with their time.

This sort of harassment isn't going to help at-risk students. And it will definitely negatively impact those caring for them, making it all the more likely something already tenuous will break completely, resulting in further hardship for everyone involved. The Pasco Sheriff's Office had made it clear it's not there to help. It has openly stated the program is there to harass people into suing or moving. And it thinks it okay to direct this same attitude at kids.

Filed Under: department of education, doe, florida, pasco county, pre-crime, predictive policing

DailyDirt: Which College Is The Best?

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

Astute high school seniors are looking at which colleges to apply to, and there is no dearth of college rankings to make some schools look better than others on paper. If a college applicant is looking for "earning power" -- it's not the school, but the choice of major that really matters. (And remember: Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Mark Zuckerberg, etc, etc. never even graduated from college...) If you're looking for social networking, it might help to go to a prestigious school -- or you could just try to be really active on Twitter/Facebook. Maybe the best strategy is to apply to as many schools as possible, and figure it out after the thick acceptance letters are sent out.

• There are a LOT of college ranking lists, but the Department of Education doesn't publish one itself. The DoE has a scorecard for schools, so you can create your own list from the data, if you wanted to. Depending on what criteria or factors you value, you can generate all kinds of "top 50 schools" (or worst schools) lists. [url]
• If you want to get really meta, The Atlantic posted a ranking of college ranking rankings. Okay, this is a pretty useless, but amusing, list of two lists. [url]
• Harvard is consistently at the top of several rankings, but does that mean it's the best school? If you're smart enough to get accepted to Harvard, you should probably go, but if you don't... you're not going to miss out on a high-earning career -- as long as you're still committed to life-long learning. [url]
• In the "top 10 schools in the world" ranking published by the London-based Times Higher Education, CalTech (California Institute of Technology) is in the top spot. American universities occupy 6 of the 10 spots, and this is the 5th consecutive time that CalTech has been at #1. [url]

After you've finished checking out those links, take a look at our Daily Deals for cool gadgets and other awesome stuff.

Filed Under: colleges, department of education, education, rankings, schools, times higher education, universities

Specially-Designated 'FOIA Denial Officers' Are Handling The Dept. Of Education's Rejected Requests

from the we've-got-some-bad-news-and-some-bad-news dept

While you would think this position exists at multiple agencies (NSA, FBI, CIA, the NYPD), it's never been captured in stark black-and-white. Morgan Smith, reporter for the Texas Tribune, recently tweeted out a photo of a rejected FOIA request. A rejected FOIA is not necessarily newsworthy. But it is when it's been rejected by someone bearing the unlikely title of "FOIA Denial Officer."

Here's to transparency in job titles! #foia pic.twitter.com/x3nxnDL29a

— Morgan Smith (@MorganSmith) August 12, 2014

Taylor D. August, of the Dept. of Education's Office for Civil Rights, is also a FOIA Denial Officer. Considering the government's general antipathy towards transparency, you'd think several agencies would have a full-time request denier on staff. But while many agencies spend more time stonewalling and denying requests, only the Dept. of Education actually has designated employees on hand solely to reject requests.

A look at the DOE's FOIA FAQ gives us the first clue:

10. Who has the authority in ED to withhold documents (in part/whole)?

The FOIA Officers, the Office of Inspector General and the Regional FOIA Denial Officers have the authority to withhold documents.

It appears this agency is extremely well-equipped to handle numerous rejections. Three tiers of rejection are available to requesters, running all the way up to the OIG. There's no reason given as to why the DOE would need regional "denial officers," but this position traces back to 2006.

In a section titled (of all things) "Customer Service," the DOE details its FOIA response automation, which routes through the Office for Civil Rights. Citing the "significant number" of requests it receives (at that point averaging around 900 per year), the agency detailed its efforts to keep up with the paperwork.

To further customer service with respect to FOIA and Privacy Act requests, OCR has been a significant participant in the Department’s initiative to automate case management under these laws. Executive Order 13392, “Improving Agency Disclosure of Information,” issued on Dec. 14, 2005, emphasizes the need for more efficient and effective processing of FOIA and Privacy Act requests.

What most of us would believe was an order intended to increase the release of responsive documents, the DOE read it as an indication it wasn't rejecting requests efficiently enough.

In addition, in FY 2006, consistent with Executive Order 13392, OCR established new FOIA procedures, including delegation to the 12 OCR office directors of the authority of FOIA denial officers. This allows FOIA requests to be processed in a more efficient and timely manner, and establishes clear accountability for FOIA processing.

As of 2006, the DOE had 12 more officials dedicated solely to rejecting FOIA requests than all other government agencies combined. (Unofficial numbers obviously impossible to obtain, much less verify, but the term "FOIA denial officer" produces search results that indicate only the DOE has such a position.)

More details on the "Denial Officers" can be found in the agency's FOIA policies and procedures (embedded below.) Here's the definition of the term:

Denial Officers. The FOIA Officers, the Secretary's Regional Representatives, or officials designated by them (Regional FOIA Review Officers), and the Office of Inspector General (OIG) who are authorized to withhold records, in whole or in part, that fall within one (1) or more of the nine (9) exemptions or three (3) exclusions of the FOIA.

Initial determinations are made by regular FOIA officers who look for possible withholding exemptions and consider fee waivers. This is handled regionally and requests possibly eligible for rejection are passed on to one of the 12 regional denial officers.

In each instance in which it is recommended that record(s) or portion(s) thereof be withheld, carefully separate materials to be withheld from those to be released, redact (e.g., remove) all exempt information from the records, and forward a copy of the redacted materials, along with an unredacted version for comparison, to the appropriate denial official. Indicate where in the records the redactions occur and why the relevant exemption(s) apply;

In each instance where "no responsive records" are located, forward (a) a memorandum to the appropriate denial official describing with particularity what records (both electronic and hard copy) were searched, search times (differentiating between computer search times and manual searches since there is a different fee rate assessed for each of these searches), and who conducted the search, and stating that the search results were negative together with (b) a draft denial letter to the requestor to be signed by a FOIA Officer;

Denial officers will always be the be the bearer of bad news.

If the denial official agrees with the recommendation to deny the request, the denial official notifies the requestor in writing of the decision to withhold the information, in whole or in part, and informs the requestor of his/her appeal rights.

However, the denial officer isn't solely limited to writing rejection letters. He or she can also push back.

If the denial official disagrees with the recommendation to deny the request, he/she notifies the FOIA Coordinator and the PO Action Office and directs the FOIA Coordinator to provide the records to the requestor.

At which point, the requester receives the responsive documents thanks to a denial officer, but from someone whose title is less resolutely negative. As much fun as it might be to press the REJECT button, denial officers will never know the joy of making a requester happy. It's a thankless job with a brusque title… unless you're the sort of person who enjoys doling out rejection or simply takes pride in your work, no matter what that work might mean.

It seems odd that the DOE would stand alone in its creation of a FOIA Denial Officer. So many government agencies are more than happy to reject request after request (and appeal after appeal), but none have been so brutally honest as to create a position solely for this purpose. The DOE's system may actually be more streamlined than those at comparable agencies, but only the DOE has the strength of character to let requesters know that a fully and specifically trained expert is behind their request's rejection.

Filed Under: accountability, department of education, foia, foia denial officers, taylor august, transparency