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Police Abuse Databases


OverSword

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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, an Associated Press investigation has found.

Criminal-history and driver databases give officers critical information about people they encounter on the job. But 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.

No single agency tracks how often the abuse happens nationwide, and record-keeping inconsistencies make it impossible to know how many violations occur.

 

But the AP, through records requests to state agencies and big-city police departments, found law enforcement officers and employees who misused databases were fired, suspended or resigned more than 325 times between 2013 and 2015. They received reprimands, counseling or lesser discipline in more than 250 instances, the review found.

Story and video

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Knew about this a long time ago when one of my regular drinking mate got involved in some silly unlawful scheme for the big cash and easy money ... hell during the interrogation they told me more about my friends than I know about them ... found out another friend's wife was having an affair when he and I had no idea of it at the time ... all just because that idiot was a regular drinking buddy of ours ...

~ 'Special Branch' ... Interpol ... and that's not even the cloak and dagger stuff and way before current surveillance tech ...

`

Edited by third_eye
something kinky ~
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Many police officers rely on informants as an investigation tool and the credibility of someone who trades information in exchange of avoiding criminal charges is highly suspect.

jmccr8

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29 minutes ago, jmccr8 said:

Many police officers rely on informants as an investigation tool and the credibility of someone who trades information in exchange of avoiding criminal charges is highly suspect.

jmccr8

I don't see the relevance of your statement to this subject.  If you read the article or watch the video you can see this thread is about police using their ability to access confidential databases for personal and illegal reasons and how there is a seeming lack of accountability for doing so.

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And some of it may seem like 'no big deal'.  

But, it's the smaller transgressions that open the gate for bigger ones.

Accessing information like they have no work related need to know is a problem.  I'm glad to see at least some of it results in discipline.

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My point is that information that data base is in part collected through unreliable sources. I guess I should have been more descriptive in my comment. Is it valid enough now?

jmccr8

Edited by jmccr8
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1 hour ago, jmccr8 said:

My point is that information that data base is in part collected through unreliable sources. I guess I should have been more descriptive in my comment. Is it valid enough now?

jmccr8

So it's no big deal if police abuse the information in those databases because some of the information may have come from unreliable sources? 

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That's not what I am saying, some of the information that they are passing on is unsubstantiated and may even have a greater detrimental effect. I am using my phone and responding during my break so I guess I am posting rather hastily sorry for the confusion

jmccr8

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