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Across US, Police Officers Abuse Confidential Databases (ap.org) 185

Sadie Gurman and Eric Tucker, reporting for Associated Press: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.
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Across US, Police Officers Abuse Confidential Databases

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  • by sl3xd ( 111641 ) on Wednesday September 28, 2016 @11:14AM (#52977023) Journal

    Am I just paranoid, or does it seem that everywhere personal data is collected, it is abused?

    • by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 28, 2016 @11:21AM (#52977069)

      Indeed it is, which is why I make a point of adding noise to such databases whenever possible.

      Anything I'm not legally required to enter correctly, I could (and often am) just making stuff up. Transpose digits in a number here, get a birthdate wrong there, accidentally mistype a middle initial somewhere else, lie about the name of my first pet, etc.

      Better to not let the data be collected in the first place, of course, but increasing the noise level helps a little.

    • Comment removed (Score:5, Interesting)

      by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Wednesday September 28, 2016 @11:30AM (#52977149)
      Comment removed based on user account deletion
      • by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 28, 2016 @11:51AM (#52977329)
        What's wrong is the social stigma that makes you feel bad that your dear nana did a bit of hoing around when she was younger - total cultural double standard where if your grandpa got money for hooking up he'd be awesome. There's nothing wrong with being a ho, in fact your grandma sounds cool.
        • by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Wednesday September 28, 2016 @11:59AM (#52977415)
          Comment removed based on user account deletion
        • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

          by Anonymous Coward

          Pretty sure male hookers are also generally looked down upon.

          • Re: (Score:2, Funny)

            by Anonymous Coward

            Pretty sure male hookers are also generally looked down upon.

            Depends on the service(s) you select.

        • There are plenty of male prostitutes. They hook up with men more often than women. They are rarely portrayed as being awesome.

          Perhaps the line to draw is between people who are empowered and in a position to choose whether or not to prostitute, and those who lack better options. It's one thing to say "I can do this thing I enjoy and get paid for it", verses "I have to do this thing whether or not I enjoy it." I guess that applies to most lines of work in a way, but prostitutes can't collect unemplo
        • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

          by Anonymous Coward

          I'm not going to comment on the issue of prostitution.

          But as far as the social stigma or difference between a male that sleeps with many women vs a female with many men: it is much more difficult for a guy to get sex on demand with many women Most men want it, but only the top tier can obtain it. Meanwhile, even an average looking woman could find a different partner every night of the week, should she desire, simply by sitting at the bar.

          A key that opens every lock is a master key. A lock that's open

      • by JustAnotherOldGuy ( 4145623 ) on Wednesday September 28, 2016 @12:11PM (#52977551) Journal

        Your grandmother and her daughters didn't do anything wrong; we all do what we have to do to survive.

        As a friend once said to me, "We all have the ethics we can afford." In other words, would I steal food if my family was starving? Damn right I would. I'd lie, cheat, and steal to feed my family.

        As for prostitution, personally I don't think it's wrong in any way (unless it's forced). It should be completely legal, and not viewed as immoral or "sinful" or whatever label the authoritarians and bluenoses want to put on it.

        Again, your grandmother and her daughters didn't do anything wrong. Your uncle is the shitbag in this scenario, and feel free to piss on his grave for me if you happen to have the chance.

        • by HiThere ( 15173 )

          There are two things wrong with unforced prostitution, but one of them is a matter of taste.
          1) Prostitutes frequently spread venereal diseases.
          2) Christians and Jews deplore many of the religious practices of the Babylonians.

          OTOH, what can one say about Kerista?

          • There are two things wrong with unforced prostitution, but one of them is a matter of taste.
            1) Prostitutes frequently spread venereal diseases.

            That's a matter of hygiene and medicine, not some inherent problem with the practice.

            -

            2) Christians and Jews deplore many of the religious practices of the Babylonians.

            Stop right there. I don't give a flying fuck what Christians and Jews deplore, and the same goes for Muslims, Hindus, Taoists, Buddhists, Sikhs, or any other religion. If they don't like it then they don't have to do it, but that doesn't give them the right to prohibit others from doing it.

        • I used to think that as well, but in an Economics study I learned some unfortunate downside to legal prostitution. Unfortunately it seems that if prostitution is legalized, illegal forced prostitution increases. That sucks.

          I'm not sure if the solution on balance should be to make prostitution illegal or just increase the resources expended against forced prostitution, but there is a downside I at least didn't know about earlier.

          • by Fjandr ( 66656 )

            Not sure what study you're referring to, but years of data from dozens of western countries don't agree (Canada, Australia, Germany, etc).

            • I saw the same, making prostitution illegal rarely helps anyone.

              I can recall someone discussing something about prostitution being legal and then illegal. It went something like when prostitution was legal the prostitutes would stay put in their "comfort house" or whatever they called it and the police had little trouble with them. There would be the occasional case of a rough customer and the police would have to come out but the prostitutes generally tended to cause no trouble and word of mouth kept the

              • by Fjandr ( 66656 )

                I can answer the "why" part: power. Whether it's the busybody down the street, or the DA downtown, making and enforcing laws and mores makes people feel powerful and in control. Many people cannot abide having nobody on whom they can look down in smug superiority. The drug laws were created to "keep them in their place." Which group was "them" has varied over time. With opium, it was the Chinese laborers in the West. With marijuana, it was the Latinos. With crack it was the blacks in LA. The rest are just a

          • I used to think that as well, but in an Economics study I learned some unfortunate downside to legal prostitution. Unfortunately it seems that if prostitution is legalized, illegal forced prostitution increases.

            What part of "unless it's forced" seemed unclear?

            That's a legal problem, it's not the fault of prostitution itself.

      • by flacco ( 324089 )

        > I literally pissed on the guy's grave when he died

        This brings up a counterpoint concerning data collection, though. There are a few graves I would like to piss on but I cannot find out where these people are buried.

      • by ADRA ( 37398 )

        I have no idea why you're so angry your grandmother was a prostitute, and even less for someone informing you on your own family history. Wallow in angry or shed the stigma. Maybe prostitution was the only viable way to get by then. Who knows. Why not get learn more about why your family had a mixed past instead of being ashamed of them.

        Pretty much every original protestant was a sinner against god and land for moral / religious grounds back in the day and now they're largely respected for their stand on wh

        • Comment removed based on user account deletion
        • Comment removed based on user account deletion
          • >Bastardy is still a thing and will be forever.

            Now you've got me wondering - was bastardy actually an issue in cultures where inheritance was passed down the matriarchal line rather than the patriarchal one? I mean it seems that the entire point of formal recognition of bastardy versus "legitimate" children was recognizing that people slept around, but inheritances needed to go to the "right" children.

    • by Jawnn ( 445279 ) on Wednesday September 28, 2016 @01:16PM (#52978133)

      Am I just paranoid, or does it seem that everywhere personal data is collected, it is abused?

      You are not paranoid. Neither were the framers of the U.S. Constitution who built in protections against such abuse. Alas, irrational fear on the part of those elected by, and who then swore to defend the rights of, the citizens, have been steadily chipping away at those protections. The terrorists have won.

      • You're getting the blame wrong.

        Politicians have rational fears. If they help loosen some unproductive security measure, and something bad happens that can be blamed on the lack of the security measure, their opponents will use that as campaign material, and they're less likely to be elected. If they enact an unproductive security measure, they're not going to get the same level of blame.

        The problem is the US electorate. If politicians got credit for removing or not adding onerous and unproductive se

  • I'm shocked! (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Opportunist ( 166417 ) on Wednesday September 28, 2016 @11:14AM (#52977027)

    Power without oversight is being abused? For real? That must be a first in human history!

  • Comment removed (Score:5, Insightful)

    by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Wednesday September 28, 2016 @11:28AM (#52977135)
    Comment removed based on user account deletion
    • He will still take the cookies.
      Put that kid on a timeout once and 99% of the kids will stop stealing cookies. .

      I don't understand that at all. So the kid gets the cookie, eats the cookie, and is punished by sitting for 10 minutes enjoying the cookie remnants still in his teeth.

  • by Solandri ( 704621 ) on Wednesday September 28, 2016 @11:33AM (#52977165)
    Not just law enforcement. It's why you shouldn't store private data unencrypted on cloud services like Dropbox, Google Drive, OneDrive. Like Ned from GoT thinking a piece of paper signed by the king was going to protect him, you're a fool if you think some company policy prohibiting employees from perusing client data is going to protect you. Those cloud services really should be offering client-side encryption as a standard feature. That they don't should tell you that they are making money by browsing through your files to glean data about you that they can sell to others.
    • And it's worth noting that it's pretty cheap to get access to a crapload of those databases at once through one crappy web search, and all you need is a business license. Whee! You do have to promise not to misuse the results, but [obviously] nothing technical prevents them from storing and perhaps reselling your data, or misusing it in any other way you can imagine.

    • by AHuxley ( 892839 )
      Years ago the FBI did some fun staff requests.
      "FBI asks computer shops to help fight cybercrime" (February 5, 2004)
      http://the.honoluluadvertiser.... [honoluluadvertiser.com]
      The extension of such visits and talks with staff could be carried over nation wide into the digital cloud. Just scan the files? Add very easy to use federal file scanner as new hardware? An NGO/private sector file scanner on all readable data uploaded?
      Maybe state and city law enforcement or federally funded state task forces asked the same of any data
    • Last I was told, Dropbox encrypted everything with AES-256 and kept the keys organizationally separate from access to the data. It isn't perfect for security, but it's easy and has some value. If you want real security, you have to do your own key management anyway, and you DON'T want to type your key into any software provided by a storage vendor, so it's no extra burden to do your own encryption and decryption.

  • Look to Healthcare (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 28, 2016 @11:34AM (#52977179)

    I work at a hospital. We audit people's access to medical records. You can be, and people have been, fired for looking at their own medical record or the medical records of their minor children when that access was made in a way that does not directly relate to their job. You are required to ask for the information the same as any other patient.

    If only we could spread that kind of accountability and auditing...

    • I work at a hospital. We audit people's access to medical records. You can be, and people have been, fired for looking at their own medical record or the medical records of their minor children when that access was made in a way that does not directly relate to their job. You are required to ask for the information the same as any other patient.

      If only we could spread that kind of accountability and auditing...

      Quoting to aid visibility.

  • by Tablizer ( 95088 ) on Wednesday September 28, 2016 @11:45AM (#52977267) Journal

    The solution is pretty simple, but often skipped:

    1) The reason for every search should be required and logged by the searcher. Example: "Related to case 12345, this person was a close match to the suspect description given by clerk at robbed market, who was interviewed by officer 84923 on Aug 7th." (In practice short-cut lingo can be used to reduce typing.)

    2) The logs be randomly spot-checked by an auditor(s) who verifies the reasons given by interviewing the person(s) who searched.

    3) The depth of the investigation will vary such that some will be pretty thorough. (Not every spot-check can be deep, but make enough deep to keep users on their toes.)

    4) Those who've failed past audits or enter poor records are audited more often.

    This won't catch every violation, but greatly reduces it because the search-user doesn't know which search will be audited and how deep the audit will be.

    The reason this is not implemented is that governments and/or tax-payers don't want to pay for logging features and auditors.

    • Clarification:

      Re: "The logs be randomly spot-checked by an auditor(s) who verifies the reasons given by interviewing the person(s) who searched."

      Rewrite: "The logs be randomly spot-checked by an auditor(s) who verifies the reasons given by checking existing records, and interviewing the person(s) who searched if any discrepancies or gaps are found."

    • Comment removed based on user account deletion
      • by ADRA ( 37398 )

        Well, I'd suggest a better system. It's still two tiered access (MANDATORY to reduce abuse), but a little more flexible. This is obviously a spit-ball solution with lots unverifiable of gaps.

        A: Regular access. The request is sent to dispatch with a request for information and a small snippet of information of why the request is prescient now. If used through a device (license plate scanner?), the brief summary of the owner and 'risk factor' can be returned without any second tier access. If more information

      • by swalve ( 1980968 )
        That just makes it a little harder to do, but way easier to defend. Dirty cop makes a citizen complaint from a burner phone claiming that a grey Ford whose license plate started with XYZ was seen driving away from a garage with a jimmied lock. Free access for every cop on the force to pull over any grey Ford they see and/or run any plate beginning with XYZ. "We were responding to a complaint." Happens constantly. Lookup "parallel construction".
    • by Dr. Evil ( 3501 )

      I dated a girl who looked up my information because she was an border officer. As a security professional I asked "isn't anyone watching", she replied: "yeah, that's my job".

      Although there's sometimes legitimate reasons for their illegitimate searches....

      Many officers are not allowed to associate with known criminals.

    • by swb ( 14022 )

      The reason this is not implemented is that governments and/or tax-payers don't want to pay for logging features and auditors.

      While the cost is real, I think it gets inflated or used as a red herring to prevent implementing audit features.

      Removing the ability to search at will is like taking away a job perk.

    • The solution is pretty simple, but often skipped:
      1) The reason for every search should be required and logged by the searcher. ...
      2) The logs be randomly spot-checked by an auditor(s) who verifies the reasons given by interviewing the person(s) who searched.

      But to check it the auditors need detailed access to the records. So who audits THEM?

      This kind of question has been asked repeatedly since at least the Roman Empire.

      (The U.S. answer to "Who guards the guardians?" , at least for direct abuse of person un

      • Ordinary businesses need auditors, also, and will face similar problems. I'd check and see what standard business auditing practices are.

    • I don't really know how much money it takes to run a police department, but it's one of the primary things I expect my taxes to take care of.

      Cut spending to fund it you have to.

      Instead, any time there are budget cuts the first things to get the axe are police, firemen, and public parks. -_-

    • by Fjandr ( 66656 )

      The problem isn't that it can't be mitigated, it's that there's no political will to oppose police unions during contract renegotiation. My city council rolled over and wet itself rather than enforce a voter-lead initiative to change the city charter and add an independent police ombudsman with investigatory and disciplinary powers. The office has never done anything in its 5 or so years of existence, and can't until the newly-negotiated contract expires. State law says the union has to okay any changes tha

  • by Anonymous Coward

    Somehow all the Trumpies on here are going crow at the injustice of this kind of abuse yet fail to see how it is directly analogous to the Stop and Frisk tactics that their hero repeatedly and strenuously advocated during Monday's debate....

  • by camg188 ( 932324 ) on Wednesday September 28, 2016 @11:53AM (#52977359)
    Back when I was working at a call center (processing credit applications for several different companies) we had access to credit reports. If we looked up someone's credit report that was not applying for credit, it was immediate termination. I couldn't even look up credit reports for people that had the same last name as myself. If that situation came up, we had to transfer the application to a different service rep.

    Years later, I worked at a hospital. They had similar restrictions and consequences regarding patient records due to HIPPA regulations.
  • Accountability (Score:4, Informative)

    by rlp ( 11898 ) on Wednesday September 28, 2016 @12:02PM (#52977439)

    The databases in question hold information such as driver licenses, car registration, criminal histories,warrants, missing persons, etc. In Ohio the main law enforcement database is LEADS which also ties into national criminal justice databases, Access to LEADS is regularly AUDITED. People who misuse it are routinely prosecuted. These databases are very important to public safety. You can never prevent misuse, but you can hold users accountable for their use of the system.

    • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward

      Access to LEADS is regularly AUDITED. People who misuse it are routinely prosecuted.

      What do you mean by "prosecuted" and what fraction of people who misuse it actually get "prosecuted"?

      By "routinely prosecuted" you could mean that there is a regular (e.g. monthly or yearly) prosecution for misuse. But that doesn't say anything about how often people are discovered misusing it. For example, if you have 4 cases a day of discovered misuse, but 99% of those get a slap on the wrist and only 1% get prosecuted, you're still talking about 1 prosecution a month, which from the outside looks to be "

    • The databases in question hold information such as driver licenses, car registration, criminal histories,warrants, missing persons, etc. In Ohio the main law enforcement database is LEADS which also ties into national criminal justice databases, Access to LEADS is regularly AUDITED. People who misuse it are routinely prosecuted. These databases are very important to public safety. You can never prevent misuse, but you can hold users accountable for their use of the system.

      Maryland has METERS, which ties into NCIC, and is similarly audited. People are punished for misuse of METERS, sure. But that isn't the only database. Counties and municipalities have their own records and document management systems, which have confidential information in them, often in greater detail than METERS- full police reports without redaction, calls for service, and so on. Implementing auditing at this level is a hard sell with the shrink in state/local funding and manpower. And let's be rea

  • Of course they do. Funny thing about power, it corrupts. I have little respect for authorities anymore. I miss my country of old...
    • Of course they do. Funny thing about power, it corrupts. I have little respect for authorities anymore. I miss my country of old...

      Authorities resent and avoid accountability as much as criminals and for the same reasons.

      Strat

  • by ThatsNotPudding ( 1045640 ) on Wednesday September 28, 2016 @12:15PM (#52977607)
    A nation-wide one that permanently keeps track of the psycho bullies that do all that the TFA mentions, along with the more generally-accepted assaults and murders they conduct that are rarely punished. Most of the time, these a-holes are told if they resign, they won't be prosecuted. Then, they just move across the country, or even just one desperate little burg over and they setup up their sadistic snuff career all over again.

    We talk about serial killers and offenders, but the ones we need to talk about AND TRACK are the serial abusers in LEO.
  • ...corruption universally. If you work for the government or one of its contractors, you should be filmed at all times, and have all your texts and emails monitored. A parallel law for the private sector should kick in for executives.

    Is that intrusive? Yes, that's the point. Would it work? Not perfectly, but it would knock out a lot of casual corruption and catch quite a few of the more egregious abusers, particularly in the defense industry and the three letter agencies.

  • Comment removed based on user account deletion
  • I've often wondered how useful these databases truly are, like driver licenses and automotive registrations. I had a discussion once where the need for driver licenses came up. I think it had something to do with illegal immigrants driving. So I thought I do some searching on the internet on how many people drove without licenses. The truth is that no one knows and very few people have enough information to even estimate it. There could be 10 million unlicensed drivers out there, give or take about 40

  • No, seriously. Anyone. In the slightest little bit. Surprised?

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