Logan County, Oklahoma Sheriff Jim Bauman created an extensive set of secret files on the citizens in his jurisdiction, inadvertently recreating Welcome to Nightvale's running gag about the Sheriff's Secret Police — but the ACLU isn't laughing, they're suing.
The story just gets better (worse): Sheriff Bauman's dossier-building was in aid of a civil forfeiture scam — the police con that has robbed 60,000 Americans of their property in a decade — and involved illegal surveillance by a private contractor.
In fact, the ACLU made an in-person request for disclosure of the database at Sherrif Bauman's office, which was also denied. Oklahoma, mind you, has a relatively aggressive legal platform by which these requests are supposed to be honored, called the Open Records Act. It is under that law that the ACLU is seeking disclosure.
Oklahoma Sherriff Accused Of Keeping Extensive Database On Citizens [Timothy Geiger/Techdirt]
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