Kansas County Orders Businesses To Track Customers

A rural eastern Kansas county has ordered businesses to keep track of their in-person customers by recording phone numbers and arrival and departure times during the pandemic – a move that has led to a federal lawsuit. The publisher of the local newspaper and a restaurant owner in Linn County both want the order blocked, contending it authorizes warrantless searches and seizures.

Health authorities across the region have been trying to strike a balance between public safety and personal liberty as Kansas and Missouri have begun to relax coronavirus-related lockdowns. The lawsuit represents the latest struggle over rules aimed at containing the virus, which has infected nearly 17,000 across the two states.

Linn County Health Officer Jay Allen, a physician, on May 1 ordered health clinics, dentists, pharmacies, banks, hardware stores, restaurants, retail stores, day care centers and other businesses to begin maintaining a list of their in-person customers for a minimum of 30 days, according to a copy of the directive attached to the lawsuit.

“This information must be kept and made available to the Linn County Health Department upon request for the purposes of Contact Tracing,” the order says, referring to the practice of identifying and quarantining the close contacts of people who test positive for the coronavirus. -Full Report

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