Web engineer vows sites with police data will return

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For Bill Sheehan, it's personal.

The Mill Creek network engineer says that after years of what he calls harassment by police, and seeing the need for more police accountability, he will continue hosting Web sites containing personal information on local police officers.

"If they want to wage a technological war, bring it on," said Sheehan, 38, after the two Web sites were pulled off the Internet yesterday. Sheehan said he received a message from DomainDiscover, through which he had registered the sites, telling him that it was taking the sites down. He said it did not explain why.

"I have no fears. I've received hundreds of offers from other people to host the sites and see to it the service stays up," Sheehan said.

He said new sites would be up and running as early as this week with even more information on police officers, including criminal records. The sites list salaries, ranks, home addresses and in some instances the Social Security numbers of law-enforcement officials in 15 jurisdictions in the state.

Sheehan said he provides the server space for the Web sites and does not control the content posted on them by another individual, with whom he said he has talked only via snail mail. But Sheehan says he doesn't mind the person's message.

He said all the information on the sites was obtained legally, via public-disclosure requests.

Sheehan has had several run-ins with the Kirkland Police Department and has previously posted information about individuals in the department on the Internet.

Sheehan's lawyer, Elena Garella of Seattle, said she thinks the Kirkland police were "throwing their weight around," trying to get his sites shut down. She is considering filing suit for violation of Sheehan's right to free speech.