I was thinking of that just today. But I wouldn't limit it to just the online searches. If it isn't online yet it will be unless the legislators do something to stop it. 

WARNING LONG STORY FOLLOWS

Several years ago while I was still actively working as a private investigator the county changed computer systems. Somehow the records became scrambled in the change. Fully one third of the criminal records reported inaccurate information. For example, a search on "John Doe" showed a conviction for child molesting. But when the actual case was pulled it was a conviction for "failure to wear seat belt".

It was bad enough that an innocent man was being falsely accused by the county computers. He could have been denied work, a license, or any number of opportunities based on this false information. But it also meant a child molester would remain unexposed and could slip through the system and be employed in a position granting him access to children.

I went to the county commissioners and explained the situation to them. I asked that the computers be shut down until the problem could be resolved. They denied the problem and refused to act. I went to the press and began an investigation on the company the county had out-sourced the computer work to.

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The commissioners continued to denty there was a problem. County employees were threatened and told not to talk to me. The story hit the UPI and was picked up by The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, The Dallas Morning News and many others.

Radio and TV news and talk shows interviewed the local politicians and me but the politicians refused to appear on the same program with me. The local reporter was threatened anonymously and I actually received 4 death threats, two from friends who had been told to warn me and two anonymously. [CONTENT REMOVED BY ADMINISTRATOR] The newly elected district attorney openly supported me when the commisioners accused his office of not being able to complete their cases in a timely manner. The local sherrif admitted there was a problem but that his office maintained a separate database and would not allow the erroneous data from the county system to be submitted to the national crime database.

I had compiled a very full file of public records on several of the polititons and their underlings but had run out of leads. It was difficult to find anyone at the county who would talk to me. 

I took the file to a local radio talk show host and showed him much of what I had found. He was scheduled to interview the county judge and myself the following day. When the judge found out that I was scheduled as well he told the host he would not appear on the same program. But the host told me, "this is a talk show and there is nothing to prevent you from calling in." He gave me a back door number so I would have no trouble getting through.

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If you want to read more of this story you can probably still find some of the articles in the archives of the online news articles.