As crooks turn to rental cars, rental agencies agree to link customer databases to Boston 911
City Councilor Rob Consalvo said today the largest rental-car companies in Boston have agreed to open their records to 911 dispatchers to help police more quickly track down criminals who rent cars for getaways.
Consalvo said police have seen a rise in criminal use of rental vehicles and that police have sometimes run into problems because checking their license-plate numbers only bring up the name of the rental company that owns the car. Under the agreement, worked out between Boston Police brass and rental-company execs earlier this month, 911 dispatchers will be able to get rental information from each company through a phone call.
City officials had considered filing legislation to require such access, but Consalvo said the rental officials readily agreed to share the information.
Comments
Are there any privacy laws
Are there any privacy laws that would prevent this sort of thing?
Do the car rental contracts say that they can provide your information to an official who merely asks?
rental cars and crooks
"Are there any privacy laws that would prevent this sort of thing?
Do the car rental contracts say that they can provide your information to an official who merely asks?"
Why, are you planning a bank robbery?
If you aren't planning to
If you aren't planning to commit any crimes, then please fax me pictures of the inside of your house and pants.
House and pants?
Who uses a house as a getaway vehicle?
Do you prefer the leg, or behind region?
Bureau of Nosy Statistics
36" tall; Don't wear pants. Svelte buoyant waterfowl.
Misuse of Information
Yeah only criminals would object to this because no one within the police umbrella has *ever* committed domestic violence or used info for their own personal purposes.
I would guess not
AFAIK, there aren't really any privacy regulations around commerce. The business may write their own privacy policy and the customer agrees to it when they sign their contract.
I'm pretty sure that the police would have the right to obtain information though as part of a police investigation, because in healthcare, our consumers are extensively protected by privacy laws, yet the police can obtain information as part of an investigation without a release of information or a subpoena.
There are documents that the police department, DCF, child support enforcement, and a few other divisions will fax over to healthcare providers that state that such-and-so is the subject of an investigation and the department is requesting medical records (or phone contact, etc.), but they don't have the person's signed consent to release information. We have to comply with these and treat them the same as if we receive a regular signed medical records request.
Really? So doctor-patient
Really? So doctor-patient privilege doesn't exist?
It does, but it doesn't mean what you think it does
Healthcare providers have a duty to cooperate in police investigations, and also have a duty to warn.
Doctor-patient privilege is very limited in scope and applies to certain questions that can't be asked of a provider who is testifying in court.
eeka - that may be a policy choice of your employer
The HIPAA makes routine law enforcement disclosures a permissible use, not a mandatory one. Note use of the word "may" here:
"Law Enforcement Purposes. Covered entities may disclose protected health information to law enforcement officials for law enforcement purposes under the following six circumstances, and subject to specified conditions: (1) as required by law (including court orders, court-ordered warrants, subpoenas) and administrative requests; (2) to identify or locate a suspect, fugitive, material witness, or missing person; (3) in response to a law enforcement official’s request for information about a victim or suspected victim of a crime; (4) to alert law enforcement of a person’s death, if the covered entity suspects that criminal activity caused the death; (5) when a covered entity believes that protected health information is evidence of a crime that occurred on its premises; and (6) by a covered health care provider in a medical emergency not occurring on its premises, when necessary to inform law enforcement about the commission and nature of a crime, the location of the crime or crime victims, and the perpetrator of the crime.34 "
source
http://www.hhs.gov/ocr/privacy/hipaa/understanding/summary/index.html