Irony Regarding the murder of Bill Sparkman

[ThoughtCriminal]

Census takers are not allowed, under penalty of up to five years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000, to report any illegal activities they observe while they are performing Census surveys. In other words, if they see a meth-lab or a pot farm, they are prohibited by law from reporting it to law enforcement.

Something I did not think of until I read a blog comment at "MyTwoCensus" is that Mr Sparkman's computer and work assignments could possibly lead to likely suspects in his murder. However, the law prohibits this evidence from being turned over to law enforcement agencies:

http://www.mytwocensus.com/2009/09/25/mytwocensus-investigation-and-editorial-census-bureau-employee-murdered/#comments

" Again this data may only be released to the sponsoring agency for the purpose of providing statistical summaries of the data. Under no circumstances may any data be released to any other government agency or law enforcement. His Census Bureau laptop would contain the list of addresses and it would be easy to determine which address was the last one he visited. Unfortunately, that information cannot be released to law enforcement."

---

The law is designed to prevent the very kind of paranoia and fear that may have lead to Bill Sparkman's murder.

[Tangerine LaBamba]

1. The first line of your post

contains a double negative that makes your thought hard to understand.

Your first line, as it reads now, states that the Census people are required to report any illegal activities they observe.

Is that what you wanted to say?

[ThoughtCriminal]

2. Thanks - corrected I think. nt

[anigbrowl]

3. 50% correct

Census takers are not allowed to report illegality, but the point about census data being off limits to law enforcement is to prevent general database searches. In this case, where it might/probably does have a material bearing on someone's death, normal considerations may not apply.

[ThoughtCriminal]

4. Probably cannot be disclosed

Even though I work for the Census, I can't say this with certainty since I'm not aware of any case law in these circumstances.

But I am quite certain that the contents of the computer and any Census address lists, are covered under Title 13 or 15. According to the documentation that I have read. These cannot, under any circumstances including evidence of criminal activity be disclosed to other agencies, including law enforcement.

[anigbrowl]

5. Can you check? I'm interested in knowing

Remember the census is mandated by the constitution, so interfering with carrying out constitutional duties is a different class of crime from usual. This is such an exceptional circumstance that it goes beyond normal data security...otherwise you could effectively do anything you want to a census worker secure in the knowledge that they couldn't report it. Murder carries all kinds of legal exceptions, like it is exempt from the statute of limitations for example.

[ThoughtCriminal]

6. Doing some checking

But I probably won't get a chance to review the proper documents until Monday. The Census Bureau has some information online, but it is incomplete. It is also possible to dig into Title 13 online, but that's not exactly light research.

[anigbrowl]

7. OK, no urgency