In Florida, it's easy for people with criminal records to hide their past. That's what St. Petersburg Times' reporters David Barstow, Susan Taylor Martin, Chuck Murphy, Bob Port, and editor Richard Bockman discovered after a six month long investigation into the abuse of a state statute which allows people charged with crimes to have their records sealed. What the reporters found was astonishing. The statute created to give first-time marijuana offenders a second chance, was now giving offenders charged with crimes ranging from fraud to murder a second chance and sometimes a third.
The list of abuses was lengthy and required the four reporters to be creative in compiling the data, according to Port, who did most of the computer analysis. It was also the Times' first crack at computer-assisted reporting. "It (the investigation) was a good example of shoe leather reporting combined with information analysis on a computer data base," Port said. First, the Times had to obtain the state arrest records and occupational data on magnetic tape, Port said.
The Times hit a stone wall in their negotiations with the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, which happens to be "home" to the state's Crime Information Computer. The newspaper requested that the FDLE provide them with the state's arrest records on computer tape. Florida is unusual in that certain information on the arrest records is considered a public record, according to Port. "We requested the records on tape under the stipulation that all of the identifiers - names, addresses, date of birth - be removed from the record." The FDLE denied the newspaper's request claiming, that while the arrest records - on paper were considered public record, the tapes were not.
Fortunately for the Times, records on magnetic tape fall under the umbrella of Florida's "sunshine law." "What it boils down to is they were afraid that we, being crafty reporters, could use other records to get a match on the names," Port said. The Times finally had to threaten a lawsuit to get the FDLE to honor the request, and although the FDLE finally agreed to provide the two tapes, they made the experience costly - after paying $25,000 in legal fees, the Times spent an additional $5,000 to obtain the tapes.
"That's a good indication of how serious the St. Petersburg Times was in obtaining that information," Port said. Once the Times had obtained the tapes, Port imported the information into a PC with two 330 megabyte drives using 9-Track Express. He was then able to manipulate the data using XDB and SQL. Port explained that the FDLE tapes were strictly used for statistical analysis. "For instance, we were able to use the information on the tapes to show which counties had the most requests for sealed records," he said.
Ironically, every person who was named in the series as having a sealed record was identified means other than from the arrest records. Port built a data base of 3,000 people who had gotten records sealed. Other public records were then used to find out more about the individuals. "It was piecing together a big jigsaw puzzle," he said. Building the data base required reporters to sit through scores of court hearings where defendants requested that their records be sealed.
Then reporters obtained the defendants' police and court records before a judge ordered them to be sealed. Reporters also spent hours in the Times library, where cases reported by the newspaper were checked against current court and arrest records to see if the record had been sealed. "What it boils down to is they were afraid that we, being crafty reporters, could use other records to get a match on the names." Bob Port "I guess you could say that we were crafty reporters," Port said.
The various techniques turned up plenty of abuses, and the Times' five-part series entitled "Hiding the Past." may cause Florida lawmakers to repeal the statute, according to Port. "We expect the law to change as a result of the series," Port said. "Legislators are already talking about either repealing or reforming the law." The cost of the endeavor has not turned the Times' top management sour on computer-assisted reporting, according to Port.
"Most of the editors at the St. Petersburg Times would say that they don't have a clue about computer-assisted reporting," he said. "But the power of the computer has started to kick in and they are becoming accustomed to the concept."