The databases in question hold information such as driver licenses, car registration, criminal histories,warrants, missing persons, etc. In Ohio the main law enforcement database is LEADS which also ties into national criminal justice databases, Access to LEADS is regularly AUDITED. People who misuse it are routinely prosecuted. These databases are very important to public safety. You can never prevent misuse, but you can hold users accountable for their use of the system.
Maryland has METERS, which ties into NCIC, and is similarly audited. People are punished for misuse of METERS, sure. But that isn't the only database. Counties and municipalities have their own records and document management systems, which have confidential information in them, often in greater detail than METERS- full police reports without redaction, calls for service, and so on. Implementing auditing at this level is a hard sell with the shrink in state/local funding and manpower. And let's be real, having strict audits of these databases is just not going to be a high priority for a lot of agencies. So I guarantee you that, if you look around, there are many agencies that have no auditing in place for their internal databases that hold confidential information. Hence the potential for abuse. I'm not surprised that this is such a widespread problem, not at all, despite strict controls that exist for the state databases that tap into the national criminal database.
So now, they can start throttling even sooner!
Yes, but they'll sell you additional blocks of 18 seconds at $20 per... so that's a win for everyone! Except the consumer, of course.
Grow up. Any country looks bad when compared to a perfect castle in the sky. For almost 2 centuries the United States stood tall among the nations of the world.
My ancestors were African slaves in Mississippi/etc. I'd like to borrow the rose-tinted glasses that you are wearing.
The tao that can be tar(1)ed is not the entire Tao. The path that can be specified is not the Full Path.