Whitfield County Sheriff’s Office staffer shares inmates’ social security numbers

UPDATE: Whitfield County Sheriff’s Office Capt. Wesley Lynch said a jail staffer sent inmates’ social security numbers to the media this morning because she accidentally clicked the wrong option on a software program.

Corrections officers have access to several reports on inmates booked in the jail. The reports are presented in a drop-down menu on the computer. Usually, the staffer selects “State Attorney’s Report (Booking and Release).” This report shows every person booked and released from the jail in the last 24 hours.

But this morning, the staffer selected “SSN: Booking and Release,” an option that sits two lines above the usual report. The report selected shows every inmate booked in the last 24 hours, as well as their social security numbers.

Lynch said the employee has not been disciplined. The problem just occurred, and administrators don’t want to punish employees for simple accidents, as opposed to intentional misconduct.

“On one occasion, one employee clicked on a similar (but incorrect) report and released it,” Lynch said. “While this is an error, it is an error that to the best of my knowledge has not occurred previously. We send out numerous reports, every day, 365 days a year. We can expect our personnel to be careful, but no human being can be perfect. Even if we were 99 percent correct I would expect three to four errors in this matter every year. However, I can’t find a record of this ever happening in the past.”

He added that they will handle this problem “firmly, but fairly.”

The report with the social security numbers came pre-loaded as part of the software, Lynch said. He does not expect to delete this option from the list of potential reports, though. He said the jail staff communicates with social security administrators about who is booked – because those people can lose certain benefits if they have been arrested.

“There’s no perfect way to fix it,” he said of today’s mistake. “Taking that report off might mean they’ll click on anther report that’s the wrong report. It won’t really help anything. … There’s going to be human error in any process.”

Lynch also said the sheriff’s office posts a sign in the jail, explaining to inmates that they do not have to provide their social security numbers.

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ORIGINAL STORY: A member of the Whitfield County Sheriff’s Office sent a log with some inmates’ social security numbers to a list of media organizations this morning.

The log shows inmates booked in the jail on Tuesday, with their social security numbers next to their names. Usually, a member of the sheriff’s office will send a different log to the media every morning, showing everyone booked in jail the day before and what charge they are facing.

But this morning, the staffer sent a different form. Today’s log lists 23 inmates. Sheriff Scott Chitwood did not immediately return a call or email this morning, but someone from the jail’s email address said the agency did not mean to share this information.

“The computer is picking up the wrong report,” the unnamed staffer wrote to the Times Free Press.

Among potential legal trappings is Georgia’s Fair Business Practices Act, which says a person, firm or corporation cannot publicly share or display someone’s social security number. It’s not clear if this act would apply to a law enforcement agency. There is a specific exemption in the code section for clerks of courts because they file thousands of public documents prepared by other people every year, some of which include social security numbers.

Sheriff Scott Chitwood said a captain at the agency is looking into what happened.

“It “appears” on the onset that this may be the copy sent to the Courts, and maybe “mistakenly” it was copied to the Media,” he wrote in an email.