Privacy Policy

Introduction

The Sweeny Police Department maintains this Web site as a public service. This policy describes our privacy and security practices regarding information collected from visitors to the site, including what information is collected and how that information is used.  The policy applies to all pages within the site.

The Sweeny Police Department holds the privacy and security of our Web site visitors and users in the highest regard.  See our User Agreement for additional information.

Information provided to the Sweeny Police Department by a User through this Web site may be subject to Texas' public records law and other state and federal laws governing records disclosure/confidentiality for public entities. By way of example, and not as a limitation, the Sweeny Police Department will, whenever possible, seek to keep personal information about a User confidential if public disclosure would lead to an unreasonable invasion of privacy, unless a third party sufficiently demonstrates that the public interest requires disclosure under particular circumstances.

Please note that all information collected or maintained by the Sweeny Police Department is subject to the provisions of the Texas Public Information Act (Chapter 552, Texas Government Code).

Information Collected & Stored Automatically

For site management functions, information is collected for analysis and statistical purposes. This information is not reported or used in any manner that would reveal personally identifiable information, and will not be released to any outside parties unless legally required to do so in connection with law enforcement investigations or other legal proceedings.

We use Log analysis tools to create summary statistics, which are used for purposes such as assessing what information is of most interest, determining technical design specifications, and identifying system performance or problem areas. The following information is collected for this analysis:

• User Client hostname - The hostname (or IP address if DNS is disabled) of the user/client requesting access.

• HTTP header, "user-agent" - The user-agent information includes the type of browser, its version, and the operating system it's running on.

• HTTP header, "referer" - The referer specifies the page from which the client accessed the current page.

• System date - The date and time of the user/client request.

• Full request - The exact request the user/client made.

• Status - The status code the server returned to the user/client.

• Content length - The content length, in bytes, of the document sent to the user/client.

• Method - The request method used.

• Universal Resource Identifier (URI) - The location of a resource on the server.

• Query string of the URI - Anything after the question mark in a URI.

• Protocol - The transport protocol and version used.

The Sweeny Police Department Web site does not use cookies, Web bugs, or Clear GIFs to track or report visitor information.  

Note: A cookie file contains unique information a Web site can use to track such things as passwords, lists of pages you've visited, and the date when you last looked at a specific page or to identify your session at a particular Web site. A cookie is often used in commercial sites to identify the items selected for a specific shopping cart application.

Cookies come in several types, primarily session or persistent, and may be set and controlled, where the cookie information is sent, by the site itself or another site, a third-party in a different domain. Persistent cookies expire after a period of time. This can be after a few minutes, days, or years.

A new technology called a Web bug is being used by some Web sites to track and/or report information about a visitor to a Web page. Web bugs are also called Web Beacons or Clear GIFs.

The Sweeny Police Department uses the services of Yahoo! Web Hosting to track and report the above information to us.

Information Collected via E-mail & Web Forms

E-Mail
The Sweeny Police Department will not sell or release the e-mail addresses of members of the public that have been provided to communicate electronically with the government body without the affirmative consent of the affected member of the public. Personally identifiable information contained in a question or comment sent to the Sweeny Police Department in an e-mail message or submitted in an online form will only be used by the Sweeny Police Department to respond to the request and to analyze trends. The Sweeny Police Department may redirect the message to another government agency or person who is in a better position to answer the question.

Web-Based Forms
The Sweeny Police Department may use Web-based forms to collect survey results, to provide online registration for some Sweeny Police Department-sponsored events, to provide online reporting of problems with city services, etc.  Personally identifiable information collected from these forms has a specified use (for example, registration, survey response, etc.) and the Sweeny Police Department will use the information only for that purpose. Each Web-based form will contains a link to this privacy policy.

An individual who submits information in electronic format through this Web site is entitled, on request, to receive and review the information the Sweeny Police Department collects about the individual, and to have the Sweeny Police Department correct the information. To do this, please contact our webmaster at webmaster@sweenypolice.org.

Security & Intrusion Detection Language

We use a secure socket layer (SSL) connection to enhance the security of any information you choose to submit to us on our Web site. In other areas of our Web site, we provide only the security necessary to maintain our Web site and information we provide to you.

Except for authorized law enforcement investigations, no other attempts are made to identify individual users or their usage habits.

Unauthorized attempts to upload information or change information on this site are strictly prohibited and may be punishable under the Texas Penal Code Chapters 33 (Computer Crimes) or 33A (Telecommunications Crimes).