Hundreds of police officers abused databases to stalk lovers, journalists, enemies, AP finds

A Florida highway patrol officer arrested a cop, then was stalked

(Image credit: AP/YouTube)

published 28 September 2016

Police officers have access to large amounts of personal information on you, and sometimes they misuse criminal-history and driver databases to find information about romantic or business partners, neighbors, fellow officers, politicians, and journalists, The Associated Press found in an investigation of police agencies in all 50 states. Between 2013 and 2015, AP says, officers and civilian employees at law enforcement agencies were disciplined — fired, suspended, or forced to resign — more than 325 times for misusing databases, and were reprimanded or sent to counseling more than 250 times.

"The misuse represents only a tiny fraction of the millions of daily database queries run legitimately during traffic stops, criminal investigations, and routine police encounters," note AP's Sadie Gurman and Eric Tucker, but the AP's tally "is unquestionably an undercount." The violations that do occur frequently involve an officer stalking a romantic interest or ex-lover. Police have access to "all your information," Alexis Dekany, an Ohio woman whose cop ex-boyfriend was convicted of stalking her last year, tells AP. "And when they use it for ill purposes to commit crimes against you — to stalk you, to follow you, to harass you... it just becomes so dangerous."

There is no foolproof way to prevent database abuse, experts say, due to the volume of queries and difficulty in discerning which searches are legitimate. "There's no system that could prohibit you from looking up your ex-wife's new boyfriend, because your ex-wife's new boyfriend could come in contact with the criminal justice system," Peggy Bell, head of Delaware's Criminal Justice Information System, tells AP. Police are people, and this free access to information is tempting. "A lot of people have complicated personal lives and very strong passions," says ACLU privacy expert Jay Stanley. "There's greed, there's lust, there's all the deadly sins. And often, accessing information is a way for people to act on those human emotions." You can learn more, and witness some cases of abuse, in the AP video below. Peter Weber

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Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.