My July 28 post titled Workin’ at the Mill referred to my Idaho Public Record Law request for the State of Idaho to identify any Idaho peace officers who had received bogus or counterfeit college degrees. Here is the Idaho State Police response.
Note the ISP has denied my request by citing Idaho Code § 9-337(13). That code section reads:
(13) “Public record” includes, but is not limited to, any writing containing information relating to the conduct or administration of the public’s business prepared, owned, used or retained by any state agency, independent public body corporate and politic or local agency regardless of physical form or characteristics.
Readers, after you’ve read the ISP response letter, please post a comment with your interpretation. What do you think the letter says or doesn’t say?
Appeal,the decision and lets get to the bottom of it.The police sure find a way to protect themselves.
Comment by kageman — August 7, 2008 @ 3:08 pm
kageman,
First, were you able to read the letter okay? Normally I post docs on Flickr, but this time I used our own website.
Second, how did you read the ISP’s response? What did you think it said or didn’t say?
Thanks.
Comment by Bill — August 7, 2008 @ 3:15 pm
I wondered about their reply. It sounds ambiguous. “Request denied” and “no records are responsive to your request”. So are there no records that apply to your inquiry (which is a response to the request) or is there no response? I await your response, or lack thereof, or anything in between, as you will, when you get around to it. Thanks……
Comment by Wallypog — August 7, 2008 @ 4:42 pm
Wallypog,
Thanks.
I thought the reply could be interpreted more than one way, too.
If I were the ISP and conducting an internal investigation, or if I were the ISP and had forwarded alleged violator information out to agencies so they could conduct their own investigation into employees who might have sought or received bogus degrees, I would not want to even acknowledge an investigation was going on by citing the investigations exemption allowed by law. I would simply make the truthful statement there are no public records responsive to my request. The records of any ongoing investigation are not public.
But, it’s equally likely and maybe more likely the letter means exactly what it says. My inquiry to the ISP had to do with officer certification and decertification. Unless an alleged violator was a peace officer employed by the ISP, the ISP might not have received information about alleged offenders from DoJ. It would be up to the offender’s own employing department to notify the Idaho POST Academy about the decision to decertify an officer. Until that happens, the Idaho POST Academy might not have a record of the action.
Comment by Bill — August 7, 2008 @ 5:15 pm
It reads as though, ‘we looked but couldn’t find anything that meets the criteria in 9-337(13)’. Maybe a public records request followup that asks for documentation of the methodology and the amount time searching would be in order.
Comment by Gary Ingram — August 7, 2008 @ 5:23 pm
Gary,
The diploma and transcript mills have been around for a long time. The one in Colbert (Dixie’s Diploma Mill) was only one in a string. If agencies are doing their applicant background investigations correctly, they won’t accept an applicant-supplied diploma or transcript without properly verifying not only the app’s credentials but the school’s credentials and certifications as well. That’s true of all employers, but when money is tight, things like that sometimes fall through the cracks.
The same scrutiny needs to be applied to candidates for elected and appointed positions, too. Just because they say they have a particular degree or are working toward one doesn’t mean we should accept their word at face value.
I’m hoping there might be enough integrity left in Idaho law enforcement officers to unearth and remove those officers who have engaged in factual if not illegal professional fraud.
Comment by Bill — August 7, 2008 @ 7:01 pm
Bill,the letter came in good.
The sentence:The Idaho State Police has no records that are responsive to
your requests.It’s an equivocal statement and somebody, could take it to mean a few different things.
It doesn’t say much for a persons character and integrity,if they have to obtain one of these fraudulent diplomas.I have no problem exposing these people.
Will it ruin their careers,to be exposed?Those people should of thought of that,before they obtained
those bogus diplomas.
Comment by kageman — August 7, 2008 @ 7:40 pm
what about tony berns degree?
Comment by TheWiz — August 7, 2008 @ 8:05 pm
Oh TheWiz, The list that could be made of people and their (cough cough) degrees. (or lack of)
Comment by concerned citizen — August 8, 2008 @ 6:22 am
Bill,
Stay on this please.
Comment by sheri — August 8, 2008 @ 6:48 pm
Sheri,
In theory, every public agency, including schools and law enforcement agencies, would properly verify the authenticity of any diploma and transcript before putting it inside an applicant’s or employee’s folder. Dixie’s Diploma Mill may have been generating false diplomas and transcripts from fictitious colleges and universities, but there are plenty of others that offer exceptionally authentic looking ones from accredited colleges and universities. The employing agency should never, never accept pieces of paper credentials and assume they are authentic without positive independent authentication and verification.
Forgery used to be a crime of art. Now it’s often purely mechanical, and the mechanics using high-resolution flatbed scanners, personal computers, and color printers can generate counterfeits that can only be detected by making microscopic and sometimes chemical comparison of the exemplar with a known genuine document. Even applied and embossed seals can be replicated.
Comment by Bill — August 9, 2008 @ 12:00 pm
Question- The person who signed the Idaho State Police Response was Cronin. Any relation to Tom Cronin in Kootenai county?
Comment by ShyAnn — August 9, 2008 @ 3:01 pm
ShyAnn,
I saw that, too, but don’t know. Cronin is a pretty common name.
Comment by Bill — August 9, 2008 @ 3:46 pm