California Hides Identity Of ‘High-Ranking’ Cop Who Abused ‘Confidential’ State Database
By Daily Caller News Foundation (/journals/dcnf)
A state law enforcement officer used a confidential police database to dig up information on coworkers, relatives and local officials.
The unnamed “high-ranking” officer searched the California Law Enforcement Telecommunications System (CLETS) for the home addresses and vehicles of six other employees without a legitimate business need, California State Auditor Grant Parks’ office found in a report released Oct. 1. This follows Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom’s veto of a bill in Oct. 2025 that would have required public agencies to document employee searches of license plate reader data and cap how long they can keep the data.
“A high‑ranking law enforcement officer misused access to a confidential law enforcement database by looking up information about himself, his family members, agency staff, and vehicles without a business purpose for doing so,” the report stated in the Unnamed State Agency section. “We are not naming the agency that is the subject of this report because doing so may identify or lead to the identification of the individuals mentioned in the report, which would violate state law.”
Using CLETS, this officer also ran searches on a deputy district attorney, a county supervisor and 65 vehicles listed for sale online, according to the report. A family member then bought one of the vehicles.
The individual conceded he had been “doing more than [he] should” and claimed his searches of coworkers were “part of threat assessments.”
The auditor did not name the officer or specific agency as the auditor is required to “[keep] confidential the identity of the employee or employees involved,” according to California state whistleblower law.
The California State Auditor’s office and the California Department of Justice each did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.
The undisclosed agency “took appropriate personnel action” and no criminal charges were filed after the local district attorney passed on the case, according to the report.
Agencies across the state reported 7,275 CLETS violations to the Department of Justice in 2023, documents obtained by the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) show. Nearly all of the violations, 6,789, came from the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, which ran concealed carry permit applicants in violation of CLETS rules.
“Querying the Automated Criminal History System for licensing, employment or certification purposes (e.g. , Carry Concealed Weapon permits),” the California Department of Justice wrote in an April 2018 bulletin on CLETS misuse.
CLETS is one of the few police databases that requires agencies to report misuse, while license plate reader systems face no such requirements, the EFF noted. The statewide network lets LEOs pull information “such as the criminal history or driving record of an individual,” the California State Auditor wrote in its Oct. 1 report.
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All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.