Santa Clara County must publicly disclose detailed electronic
maps generated by global navigation satellites despite safety
concerns, a judge ruled in what First Amendment advocates hail as a
landmark decision.
San Jose – Santa Clara County must publicly disclose detailed electronic maps generated by global navigation satellites despite safety concerns, a judge ruled in what First Amendment advocates hail as a landmark decision.
Superior Court Judge James Kleinberg’s ruling May 18 requires the county to share – at a minimal cost – the digital “basemap” that makes up its “Geographic Information System.”
The GIS basemap – resembling Google Earth’s detailed satellite imagery and aerial photography – is used to map parcels and public infrastructure.
“I think it’s a very important decision,” said Peter Scheer, director of the San Francisco-based California First Amendment Coalition, which filed the lawsuit last October. “It’s really kind of a landmark decision. The issue of who owns valuable government databases is one that is facing counties and cities all over the state and all over the country, for that matter. The court wisely saw that digital files created with taxpayer funds are not the monopoly asset of a government agency but something that belongs to the public.”
The county argued it could restrict access to the data because the release of detailed geographic information, including the locations of easements for water pipelines from Hetch Hetchy to San Francisco, could create a public-safety problem.
“We were certainly disappointed in the outcome,” said Santa Clara County Assistant County Counsel Bob Campbell. “It was clear from the judge’s decision he had some reservations about ruling against the county.”
Campbell said the GIS basemap serves a number of purposes in the county, such as providing pinpoint accuracy for law enforcement and public health agencies.
Because the data is so expensive to accumulate and maintain, the county previously charged a handful of customers including telecommunications companies $150,000 to access the digital basemap.
“It’s not an inexpensive system to create,” Campbell said. “If this is going to be generally available” there is concern about where money would come from to finance it.
Ultimately, the court found the county’s practice charging hefty fees for the data conflicted with the position that the information posed a threat.
“We can’t take seriously this business about terrorism if they’ve been selling this information for years,” Scheer said.
