Police Abuse Confidential Database Access to Stalk Innocent People

According to the Associated Press (AP), "Police officers across the country misuse confidential law enforcement databases to get information on romantic partners, business associates, neighbors, journalists and others for reasons that have nothing to do with daily police work... the AP’s review shows how those systems also can be exploited by officers who, motivated by romantic quarrels, personal conflicts or voyeuristic curiosity, sidestep policies and sometimes the law by snooping. In the most egregious cases, officers have used information to stalk or harass, or have tampered with or sold records they obtained. (Gruman, September 27, 2016)

The AP report is not an isolated case, from Maine to California police officers are abusing their access to confidential information, for example...

The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) reported that police in California are abusing their access to the California Law Enforcement Telecommunications System (CLETS). Police have used their access to "stalk their ex-partners, gain advantage in custody proceedings, and screen potential online dates. In one of the worst incidents, an officer allegedly attempted to leak records on witnesses to family of a convicted murderer." (Maass, Dave, May 14, 2017)

In May 2020, the Bangor Daily News reported that "the Maine Information and Analysis Center was collecting and maintaining data illegally, including information about people who had applied to buy guns from firearms dealers, those who legally protested and those who worked at a Maine international camp for Israeli and Arab teens." (Harrison, May 14, 2020)

In November 2019, the Sacramento Bee reported that "more than 1,000 California law enforcement agency workers... have been caught misusing sensitive law enforcement databases that are supposed to be accessed only for legitimate investigative purposes." (Stanton, Smith, Wailoo, November 21, 2019)

It takes little effort to find multiple reports of police abusing their access to confidential information, but police officers rarely face criminal charges when they use law enforcement databases to snoop on people for personal reasons.

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Commonly available to law enforcement is the driver's license and vehicle registration database for their state, and through their dispatch center these records from other states as well. This give the police immediate access to your personal identifiers (name, date of birth, physical description, and photograph), along with your home address and a list of vehicles registered in your name.

Through NCIC (National Crime Information Center) police have access to an additional twenty-one databases (seven property files and 14 person files). 

Other databases include, eGuardian, Intelink, JARVISS, databases maintained by state and local Fusion Centers, the Law Enforcement Information Exchange, the Law Enforcement National Data Exchange (N-DEx), Interstate Identification Index, Law Enforcement Enterprise Portal (LEEP), Regional Information Sharing Systems Network (RISSNET), Repository for Individuals of Special Concern (RISC), and any number of local and regional databases maintained by individual agencies and Regional Intelligence Groups.

 

 

References

Gruman, Sadie, September 27, 2016, Associated Press, "Across US, police officers abuse confidential databases"

Harrison, Judy, May 14, 2020, Bangor Daily News, "Maine State Police illegally collecting data on residents, lawsuit claims"

Maass, Dave, May 14, 2017, Electronic Frontier Foundation, "California Authorities Are Failing to Track and Prevent Abuse of Police Databases"

Stanton, Sam, Darrell Smith and Elliot Wailoo, November 12, 2019, The Sacramento Bee, "California’s Criminal Cops: Hundreds of officers misuse law enforcement databases"