Lee Davidson reports:
The Senate passed a bill Tuesday that is designed to stop police from snooping without a warrant into a state database that records Utahns’ prescription medicines.
The Senate sent SB119 to the House on a 27-0 vote.
Its sponsor, Sen. Todd Weiler, R-Woods Cross, said in earlier debate that police now search the prescription database 7,000 to 11,000 times a year. “I hope my Senate colleagues shutter (sic) at that thought.”
He said these are mostly law-enforcement fishing expeditions, and he wants investigators to obtain search warrants that show probable cause.
Read more on The Salt Lake Tribune.
Interestingly, one of the examples of database abuse by police that Senator Weiler cites is a breach that should be included as an insider breach:
One was a small-town officer with a pain-medicine addiction who was later arrested for using the database to see who else in his community had the same prescription, then visiting them to steal the medication.
SB 119 would also increase consumer/patient access to their records in the database and to find out who has accessed their records. It also provides a mechanism to correct misinformation. You can access the bill text here.