Local computer security expert investigates police practices

An 'urban golf' outing raises civil liberties questions
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
Apr. 23, 2010

A drunken street golf game with foam balls has led to a serious civil rights issue, pitting computer geeks against police practices.

Eric Rachner, a Seattle cyber security expert and one of the golf players, wasn't satisfied when the city dismissed charges against him after a possibly illegal arrest for refusing to provide identification.

Rachner discovered through sleuthing that police had withheld video-recorded evidence in his case.

Rachner also hired Seattle attorney Cleveland Stockmeyer to look at his case and probably others where arrests might have been illegal or where police claimed to have destroyed valuable arrest videos that weren't, in fact, erased.

"How many people are sitting in jail who asked for their tapes and were told no, they can't have them," says Stockmeyer. "I don't know. But I tell you we're going to freaking find out."

Continued