HB 1219 has passed the House of Representatives and will now go to the Senate. It requires a local unit of government that has an Internet accessible property database to create a procedure for preventing members of the public from gaining access to the home addresses of law enforcement officers or victims of domestic violence. The procedure has to include the ability of officers to submit a written request “to prevent a search of the web site from disclosing or otherwise associating the law enforcement officer’s home address with the law enforcement officer’s name.”
I’m not unsympathetic to this bill. But, first, logistically, this strikes me as one of those things that are easier said than done. Also, once law enforcement officers are exempt, lawmakers will have to struggle with requests from other groups that can present a sympathetic case for why they wouldn’t want their addresses readily available to evildoers. Pretty much anyone that comes into professional contact with the criminal justice system can make some sort of a case.
These records will also likely be available through indexes you can access by going to the offices in the county building. However, the bad guys are more likely to plot and scheme when they can do it from the privacy of their computers rather than having to make a trip into a public building.
By my reading, this wouldn’t apply to non-owner-occupied properties, since there would be no record of the actual resident (at least for the case of sites like gis.tippecanoe.in.gov). I wonder how this would affect private publications of such data (e.g. the Journal and Courier’s property tax database). It would appear that there’s no requirement for the J&C to comply, and no mechanism for keeping the records hidden, just the presentation on the Internet.
Isn’t it already easy enough to just put property in the name of a holding company or LLC made up of your wife and you? At least that makes it take several additional steps.