(Hosting company) GoDaddy Silences Police-Watchdog Site RateMyCop.com

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2008/03/godaddy-silenc...

GoDaddy Silences Police-Watchdog Site RateMyCop.com
By Kevin Poulsen
March 11, 2008 | 8:42:42 PM
Categories: Censorship, Cover-Ups

A new web service that lets users rate and comment on the uniformed police officers in their community is scrambling to restore service Tuesday, after hosting company GoDaddy unceremonious pulled-the-plug on the site in the wake of outrage from criticism-leery cops. (...)

Police departments became uneasy about RateMyCop's plans to watch the watchers in January, when the Culver City, California, startup began issuing public information requests for lists of uniformed officers.

Then the site went live on February 28th. It stores the names and, in some cases, badge numbers of over 140,000 cops in as many as 500 police departments, and allows users to post comments about police they've interacted with, and rate them. The site garnered media interest this week as cops around the country complained that they'd be put at risk if their names were on the internet. (...)

Since undercover officers aren't in the database, and the site has no personal information like home addresses, that fear seems unfounded. Chief Jerry Dyer, president of the California Police Chiefs Association, voices what sounds like a more honest concern: that officers will face "unfair maligning" by the citizens they serve. (...)

A GoDaddy spokeswoman says the company can't comment on the RateMyCop takedown due to its privacy policy. Sesto says he's already arranged hosting elsewhere, and hopes to have the site online Tuesday night. (More at link. Emphases mine.)