Thursday, 01/03/08
Data loss shakes voter trust. Facility guarded half-time on weekends
By MICHAEL CASS, Staff Writer
The Metro Nashville building from which thieves stole two computers containing sensitive voter data does not have security guards on duty for half of the day on weekends, and it has no alarm system or video surveillance.
The Metro Office Building on Second Avenue South has had one guard on duty 12 hours a day on Saturdays, Sundays and holidays for about 10 years, said Velvet Hunter, Metro General Services’ assistant director for administration. She declined to specify the hours, citing concerns that publicity could make the facility more vulnerable.
Hunter said city officials decide how to secure buildings based on “a risk assessment of all factors.” She said the Metro Office Building, which is on Second Avenue South near Howard School Office Building, had never been burglarized until the laptops were stolen around Christmas.
But the area around the building, which is just off Interstate 40, has had problems with crime. Four homicides were committed within a half-mile of the facility in 2007, and seven homicides within a mile of it, according to a Tennessean analysis of Metro police data.
The two Dell Latitude laptops, one of which needed repairs, contained Social Security numbers for 337,000 voters. Police said Wednesday that a computer router also stolen in the break-in at the Davidson County Election Commission offices “went offline” at 9:45 p.m. Dec. 24.
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I heard SC didn’t observe MLK day.
lots of people are still fighting the american civil war.
GO Yankees!