Cops want access to prescription pain killer list

[AZRedhawk44]

You get the government you deserve.

http://www.newsobserver.com/2010/09/08/669723/lists-of-pain-pillpatients-sought.html

Synopsis:  Sheriff's office wants access to NC registry of prescriptions and patients.  Not for any particular one person, but to go fishing for anyone that appears to be doctor-shopping or otherwise obtaining more medicine than they feel is "reasonable."

No PC.  No RS.  Just a fishing expedition.

Telling quote?

Eddie Caldwell, lobbyist for the N.C. Sheriff's Association, said the level of access to the data is up for discussion.

"There's a middle ground where the sheriffs and their personnel working on these drug abuse cases get the information they need in a way that protects the privacy of that information," he said. "No one wants every officer in the state to be able to log on and look it up."

Hey, dumbass:  It's called a warrant.  Which grants you access to limited and specific information pertaining to your CASE you are working, once you demonstrate reasonable grounds for more in depth investigation.

[cassandra and sara's daddy]

i thought dea already did that?  is this an election year stunt?

[Sergeant Bob]

i thought dea already did that?  is this an election year stunt?

They do but, everybody wants more power for themselves.

[Battle Monkey of Zardoz]

Let me guess, cops on painkillers will be exempted.

[Tallpine]

HIPPA     

[Nitrogen]

The only proper response to this request has two words to it.

the first one has been rumored to be an acronym for "For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge" and the last word is a pronoun of the second person singular or plural.

[vaskidmark]

HIPPA     

It's HIPAA, hippie! 

And there is the law-enforcement investigation loophole, just like every other privacy protection act ever passed.

stay safe.

[PTK]

Eh. Sort of irrelevant, since from what I've seen/experienced, police already have most of that sort of information and go from there.

[Tallpine]

It's HIPAA, hippie! 

And there is the law-enforcement investigation loophole, just like every other privacy protection act ever passed.

stay safe.

Yeah, I forgot - the Hippie Law is only to keep your relatives from finding out if you are alive/dead etc 

[209]

It's HIPAA, hippie! 

And there is the law-enforcement investigation loophole, just like every other privacy protection act ever passed.

stay safe.

Yeah, HIPAA applies.

And the supposed loophole for law enforcement isn't much of a loophole.  It takes a court order and such (sometimes even a search warrant to get the info).

Anyone that thinks I can walk into a court and get a search warrant without a good explanation of why I want it is misled as to the process.

First, I need to have another officer sign it.  We both have to go and see a judge... if the warrant application passes muster with the States Attorney and he allows us to see the judge.  It's a long drawn out process and takes a lot of time and man hours.  That's a good thing.  My search warrant applications have been for serious incidents.  I don't have the time or energy to try to get one for a minor crime.  There may be some PDs and federal agencies that can clear those huddles easier, but my PD sure can't.  Nor do I think we should be able to do so.  The process we follow seems to be honest.  It takes Probable Cause and an interview with a judge to explain the same to get one.  We don't judge shop either and I've never seen that happen here. 

It seems like the Sheriff in the article wants to know who gets things like Oxycontin and like drugs.  I'd guess there's a problem in NC with those.  Guess what?  HIPAA comes into play.  It's federal law.  The state can't (or shouldn't be able to) change it.

I was on Oxycontin for months following a bad back injury.  I think I probably still have some in the house.  Tough crap.  It was prescribed to me and I can legally have it.  It is not anyone's business.

This is exactly why people are tending to view law enforcement in a bad way.  They overreach and come up with intrusions into lives so they have an easier time.  Law enforcement is hard work.  It can take time to legally build a case.  That's the way it should work.  Hard work and proving why it's being pursued with legal proof along the way.  Shortcuts make for sloppy investigations and sloppy cops.

[Tallpine]

209, thank you for being one of the good ones 

[AZRedhawk44]

This is exactly why people are tending to view law enforcement in a bad way.  They overreach and come up with intrusions into lives so they have an easier time.  Law enforcement is hard work.  It can take time to legally build a case.  That's the way it should work.  Hard work and proving why it's being pursued with legal proof along the way.  Shortcuts make for sloppy investigations and sloppy cops.

Thank you for fessing up on this, and for being one of the good ones.

I contend that the inherent culture is corrupt if LE organizations go through the trouble of collectively hiring lobbyists, and those lobbyists are tasked with writing laws that violate existing privacy standards just to shop for more victimless criminals.

[vaskidmark]

See, the point is that some things (medical history) still require a search warrant to pry loose from the records holder, while othere (some, certain cell phone information) can be had with a mere court order - not a warrant - based on a statement that the info is relevbant to an ongoing investigation.

In both cases I'm getting more and more worried about the increasing number of government possessors of authority that seem to think they ought to be allowed to get their hands on all sorts of information "just in case it might prove useful".

It's not the line cop that I worry about.  It's the Chief who thinks getting the department's hands on all this information will suddenly make it easier to solve crimes.  Them and the line cops who buy that hogweash and go file the paperwork for the boss.  Among all the other problems that creates, it makes it harder for 209 to do his job while working inside the lines instead of on the margins.

stay safe.

[dm1333]

HIPPA

Yeah, what Tallpine said.  I can't legally open up one of my crewmen's medical record after they come back from a civilian doctor to see if any of the meds they are taking should keep them off a boat crew and from strapping on a gun, and these guys want complete access to these records?

[Nitrogen]

209, I wish we had more LEO's like you.  Thanks for being a good one.

[Waitone]

Keep the story in mind next time someone opines that NC is a southron conservative state.

[vaskidmark]

Keep the story in mind next time someone opines that NC is a southron conservative state.

Between this and your "No Guns During a State of Emergency" I'm going to stop ordering BBQ cooked NC-style.

Thank G-d for Texas.

stay safe.

[Waitone]

For the record I no longer live in NC.  I went over the wall 4 years ago.  There exist at least 4 kinds of BBQ unique to NC.  Forget all but far eastern BBQ.