planetdan

Thursday, October 28, 2004 :::

Nosy Neighbors

The state of Wisconsin has a Court Systems website where you can look up the criminal history and court judgments for any resident. From hardcore drug possession to sexual predatry (I just made up that word myself) to traffic violations - this site has it all. Right there on the web for everyone to see. It's pretty sweet for nosy bastards like me.

Minnesota has no such service available online, says my source at Hennepin County, but one is in the works. Until then you can always check out the St. Paul Prostitution Prevention website to see pictures of the most recent john and crack-whore arrests. I'm always afraid that I'm going to recognize someone on there, so checking it weekly is a perverse thrill.

Also, while we're on the topic of eroding personal privacy, Google just acquired Keyhole, which is a nifty little satellite photo application that practically allows you to zoom into your neighbor's backyard. It requires a free 7-day trial download to work, but it's really quite awesome. Check out some pictures of my neighborhood:

My Block #1
My Block #2

::: posted by dan at 2:57 PM :: [ link ] :: (11) comments

Comments are Closed On this Post

11 previous comments:

Where is a good Gilmore Girls post? I watched the Pippi scene from last week's episode at least three times and not a word about it here. All you can talk about are Halloween costumes and prostitutes!!! :)

By

Maggie, at 3:27 PM

Pippi was good but there hasn't been any major developments in Stars Hollow worth mentioning lately. Good dialogue, but gimme some drama!

Although I do like how frank the show is lately about Rory doin' it. It may be a little risque but at least it's realistic.

By

dan, at 3:44 PM

I think I can see your new stairs in the pictures. Sweet!

By

hot babe, at 4:42 PM

TerraServer does the same thing, except you don't have to download anything and it's free.

By

Anonymous, at 6:13 PM

The Wisconsin website is amazing. I live in Missouri but my ex-boyfriend is from Wisconsin. I typed his name in and poof! 7 speeding tickets w/i a year. Useless info but still fun to see.

By

Anonymous, at 6:47 PM

Terraserver is cool but if you look at the data, it's from 1991. Big Brother is watching you!!!

By

Colleen, at 7:36 PM

oh yipee! I just spent an hour of work looking up all the people I dated in high school - a variety of traffic tickets and one incidence of pushing a police horse!!! What fun! So glad I didn't show up in it!

I found a similar search engine for Arizona at: http://www.supreme.state.az.us/publicaccess/search.asp

I just wish there was a MN list so I could look up college friends.

Thanks Dan!

By

pdxkatie, at 12:49 PM

Dan –
You can still have a little fun if you’re feeling nosy in Minnesota. You can get a criminal record on-line through the BCA, but it’ll cost you $5.00.

https://cch.state.mn.us/Common/BCAHome.aspx

There are other things you can see through the BCA too, like sex offenders, whose in prison and other things like that:

http://www.dps.state.mn.us/bca/bca.html

If you have someone’s Drivers License number you can also be nosy here:

http://dutchelm.dps.state.mn.us/dvsinfo/mainframepublic.asp

And, if you don’t have the number, you can google for a calculator to spit the number out for you (for almost ANY state in the US).

The amount of information available is amazing!

By

cursingmama, at 1:16 PM

Just 2 questions....where the hell is "Frogtown" and can't we just build a wall around it to keep the yuckies from getting out? Good grief!

By

annie, at 3:12 PM

I think I see Dan in the satellite picture...He's either A) writing on his blog; B) watching Gilmore Girls; or C) sewing an Oompa Loompa costume.

By

Kiddo78, at 10:11 PM

Sigh. I wish I knew how to sew so that my costume wasn't so retarded. Oh well. I'll just go watch some Gilmore Girls to make myself feel better.

By

dan, at 12:02 AM

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