Can You Trust Your Database?

From the "technology is only as good as the user" file:

The Texas Department of Public Safety recently complained that counties fail to update the state's criminal database, which prosecutors and law enforcement use to check on an individual's criminal history and which agencies and businesses use to conduct criminal background checks on applicants. Counties input just 69 percent of criminal charges into the system, according to an assessment reported on by The Dallas Morning News. The paper reported:

Mr. Bradley, the Central Texas district attorney, said the DPS system's incompleteness causes prosecutors, ignorant of a conviction, to be more lenient than they should. He said the biggest threat is to officers making traffic stops. If they can't get "accurate and timely dispatching information" about a driver, they don't know when to take precautions, he said.

The DPS database also is used to screen schoolteachers and volunteers who work with children, and caregivers for the sick and frail. Gaps can affect background checks run by employers on job applicants and landlords checking on prospective tenants. Everyone from job applicants to people trying to adopt children or buy guns can be affected, Ms. Klein said. No one knows how many Texans didn't get a job because an acquittal or dismissal wasn't in the system, she said.

This link between the efficacy of a computer system and the aptitude of its users was underscored by the case of Erich Scherfen, who served in the first Gulf war and who is trying to clear his name off the national terror watch list. It would seem Scherfen, a Muslim, has a legitimate beef with the Homeland Security Department for mistakenly including his name on the list. An ongoing lawsuit may clear the matter up.

But what's apparent is that a lack of attention to the accuracy of the data that computers, which governments increasingly use to make serious decisions affecting our lives, is becoming a an even bigger problem. Tech Insider blogged about this issue just a few months ago. Just how bad is it?

How confident are you in the accuracy of the information in your agencies' databases?