[IP] Missouri tracks scofflaws via pizza-delivery databases
Delivered-To: dfarber+@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Date: Tue, 27 Apr 2004 17:27:20 -0400 (EDT)
From: EEkid@xxxxxxx
Subject: Missouri tracks scofflaws via pizza-delivery databases
To: dave@xxxxxxxxxx
Missouri tracks scofflaws via pizza-delivery
databases
By Kelly Wiese, Associated Press
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. ? It's dinnertime, and yyou're hungry and tired, so
you pick up the phone and order your favorite pizza. But you might have
just landed yourself a lot more than pepperoni and cheese.
If you owe fines or fees to the courts, that phone call may have provided
the link the state needed to track you down and make you pay.
That's one of the strategies of firms such as a company being hired by
the Missouri Office of State Courts Administrator to handle its fine and
debt collections.
David Coplen, the state office's budget director, said he discovered that
pizza delivery lists are one of the best sources such companies use to
locate people.
"There are literally millions of dollars of uncollected fines, fees
and court costs out there," Coplen said.
How much?
A sampling in January of just three of Missouri's 114 counties found
about $2 million owed to courts by people whose Social Security numbers
were known, Coplen said. That finding suggests courts statewide could
reap significant revenue once Dallas-based ACS gets to work this month
pursuing people using phone numbers and addresses.
Databases compiled by private companies and government agencies are a key
tool for firms such as ACS, Coplen said, and "one of the databases
they find to be most helpful are pizza delivery databases."
"When you call to order a pizza, you usually give them your correct
name, your correct address and your correct phone number," he said.
Just which pizza companies' databases might be mined is unknown.
A representative of Domino's Pizza said the company does not sell its
customer information, and other national pizza chains did not respond to
messages seeking comment.
Michael Daniels, an ACS division vice president, declined to reveal
exactly which companies' databases ACS uses.
Daniels said sifting through private databases, from pizza deliveries to
magazine subscriptions, is just one piece of the work the company does to
help states collect more money and make the process more efficient.
The company's clients typically see their collections rise anywhere from
33% to 100% in the first year of a contract, Daniels said.
Some details of Missouri's contract with ACS are still being worked out,
Coplen said, but the company makes money on court fees by adding a
surcharge to the amount a person owes. For every $1 of a court fee it
collects, ACS may charge ? and keep ? a maximum surcharharge of 20%.
For handling the fine collection center, which processes citations such
as traffic tickets that people pay without going to court, the company is
paid per ticket, but the cost is tied to the amount it finds in the debt
collection portion.
Coplen said having ACS pursue those who owe court fees and fines will not
only bring money into the state but will teach people that when they are
fined, they must pay up.
Currently, Coplen said, if an Illinois resident fails to pay a Missouri
speeding ticket, a Missouri court can issue a warrant. But sheriffs'
offices rarely have time or staff to drive hours away and deliver such a
warrant, he said. For ACS, however, there's a financial incentive to go
after such scofflaws.
Some privacy advocates say the public should be aware of how databases
such as pizza delivery lists may be used.
Chris Hoofnagle, of the Electronic Privacy Information Center in
Washington, D.C., said the use of such seemingly innocuous information is
a common strategy.
"The unfortunate reality is even if you are very careful in
protecting your personal information, you give it to any business, they
can turn around and sell it," Hoofnagle said.
"The first time your baby sitter orders pizza, that pizza delivery
company has your phone number, address and name, and they sell it,"
he added. "They don't have to tell you about it, either."
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