Inmates using newspaper's gun owner map to threaten guards, sheriff says (NY)

[Bruce Jackson]

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2013/01/04/law-enforcement-latest-critics-on-public-display-gun-owner-data-officers/?intcmp=obnetwork'

Inmates using newspaper's gun owner map to threaten guards, sheriff says
Published January 04, 2013
FoxNews.com

Law enforcement officials from a New York region where a local paper
published a map identifying gun owners say prisoners are using the
information to intimidate guards.

Rockland County Sheriff Louis Falco, who spoke at a news conference
flanked by other county officials, said the Journal News' decision to
post an online map of names and addresses of handgun owners Dec. 23
has put law enforcement officers in danger.

"They have inmates coming up to them and telling them exactly where
they live. That's not acceptable to me," Falco said, according to
Newsday.

Robert Riley, an officer with the White Plains Police Department and
president of its Patrolman’s Benevolent Association, agreed.

"You have guys who work in New York City who live up here. Now their
names and addresses are out there, too," he said adding that there are
8,000 active and retired NYPD officers currently living in Rockland
County.

Local lawmakers also say that they intend to introduce legislation
that prevents information about legal gun owners from being released
to the public.

The newspaper published the online map last month alongside an article
titled, "The gun owner next door: What you don't know about the
weapons in your neighborhood." The map included the names and
addresses of pistol permit holders in Westchester and Rockland
counties obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request.

While the paper ostensibly sought to make a point about gun
proliferation in the wake of the school shooting in Newtown, Conn.,
the effort may have backfired. A blogger reacted with a map showing
where key editorial staffers live, and some outraged groups have
called for a boycott of parent company Gannett’s national advertisers.
Ironically, the newspaper has now stationed armed guards outside at
least one of its offices.


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