I’ve been reading the message boards here for years, and finally decided to register.
Here’s the situation I’m wondering about: My friend’s car was hit while it was parked, which left minor damage – a couple of dents in the bumper. She assumed the car parked behind hers was the culprit because there was about an inch of space between the cars, and she thought the other driver must have hit her car while squeezing into the space. There was no note left on her car, so she also assumed this was a hit-and-run, or rather, a hit-and-park. She took pictures of the damage and the license plate of the other car.
However, she didn’t want to go through her insurance company because the damage was so minor that it would not meet her deductible and she would have to pay out of pocket. So instead, she called up the police officer who she’s dating and had him run the plate. He gave her the name and address of the person on the car’s registration. It turned out this person lives close to her, and she told me she was thinking about driving to their house and keying the car or slashing the tires. I convinced her that she shouldn’t break the law just because she’s mad over a couple of dents.
Was it legal for this officer to give a civilian the personal information of another civilian? I think this is an abuse of his power. If this is illegal, is there anything I can or should do?
In the manner you described, the officer abused their authority. You could report it to Internal Affairs of the police department. Notice I said you could report it. It’s up to you how much your friendship is worth to you, and how much your friend’s cop has crossed the line before.
Thanks for the quick reply. Do you know whether there is a way for me to make an anonymous report to Internal Affairs, or would I have to give my name?
There hasn’t been any other behavior from this guy that seems illegal, although from what my friend tells me, he doesn’t seem very mature for someone who’s supposed to protect and serve society. She told me that he cracks jokes about abused children, mentally ill people, etc. These are all people who he’s interacted with as part of his job, and he probably does it to blow off steam, but it still seems inappropriate. For example, he was dealing with a little girl who had been raped, and he later made fun of the fact that she had pubic hair. I think he’s disgusting, but having a sick sense of humor isn’t illegal.
If you want more specific information about whether what the cop did is legal in your jurisdiction (strong presumption would be no) you’ll have to tell us where you live.
ETA: I mean country, state/province/county/whatever, etc., not your address.
I’m pretty sure what he did is illegal. Here in California, rules about DMV records are pretty strict, especially since that actress Rebecca (I can’t remember her last name, she was in the show My Sister Sam), was murdered. The killer got her address through DMV.
But what your friend wanted to do was wrong too. She’s assuming that the car she saw was the one that hit hers, but it’s possible she is wrong about that as well.
I’d certainly be tempted to report the police officer. But I wouldn’t be real happy with my friend either.
Thanks! I told her she shouldn’t have assumed it was the same car. Even if it was, it’s possible the registered owner wasn’t the person driving it at the time. Maybe his kid is learning to drive and screwed up, or maybe a friend borrowed the car.
Her car could have been damaged prior to the time she noticed it, with her not realizing it because there was nothing (like a car parked one inch away) to bring it to her attention. If she doesn’t know FOR AN ABSOLUTE FACT (and I’d bet good money she does not) that the damage was done by that car, then she was ready to do willful and significant property harm to someone who may well be completely innocent.
It’s not uncommon for the info her boyfriend provided to be available to anyone who requests it, though of course that varies with jurisdiction. Chances are she could have found out by herself, through her insurance company, or through some other legal method if she didn’t have a cop friend to expedite the process. In my opinion, concern about possible abuse of power should take a back seat to concern about jumping to a conclusion and eagerness to do malicious damage.
You can do what you want, but I sure wouldn’t care to be friends with someone who thinks along those lines.
I don’t know whether internal affairs will accept an anonymous report, but before you decide to report it anonymously, think about the result you’re looking for and how much information you have. I don’t work for a police department, but it is not uncommon for me to receive complaints about the people I supervise which I then must investigate. Vague complaints can’t really be investigated- if you call anonymously and say " Officer so-and-so ran a plate and gave the information to his girlfriend." , what can they do other than ask him if he ran a plate and gave the owner’s info to his girlfriend ? He’ll say no. That’s going to be the end of it , and he still may be able to figure out it was you who called. If you know the plate number or when he ran the plate or give your name , they may be able to do more.
And about your friend- she doesn’t even know that’s the car that caused the damage- sure , it’s the car that was behind her when she returned, but that doesn’t mean another car didn’t try to fit in the space, cause the damage and take off. But she goes ahead and has her boyfriend run the plate and wants to key the car or slash the tires- he’s not the only one who is immature
That may or may not be the end of it, depending on how seriously “they” choose to investigate. Running plates, or any other computerized inquiry, gets logged in the system. Workers who have access to that info must sign in with their user name and password, and everything gets logged in some database somewhere.
Hey, if Google can log everybody’s searches, the DMV and police computers certainly can. And do.
ETA: And the same is almost certainly true of any kind of medical records inquiry at any medical office you go to, if things are computerized.
In general, for just about anywhere, divulging such information is a clear breach. Stupid too. Most systems have audit trails, and a record of him making the inquiry will remain on the system. An audit of the system could easily turn up the access as atypical even without a complaint being made.
However, here where I live there is actually a specific point where it is legal to get such information. But not by getting a b/f “running the plates”. Our equivalent of the DMV will give out contact details in the specific case where you are seeking the other party in an auto accident. But you need to do a bit more to substantiate the situation than just making a bland claim. Indeed I’m not sure that it doesn’t involve a statutory declaration, which is pretty serious. I would imagine many other places have similar rules.
Such information is rather easy to obtain online. But that’s not what the OP is asking.
I can only speak for Wisconsin. At one time it was perfectly legal for the police to give out such information (though, many times, prohibited by individual department written policies).
But over the last 2 decades privacy and anti-stalker laws (both state and federal) have greatly restricted what an officer can legally tell you, on top of prohibitions by department policies.
In Wisconsin there are even prohibitions on what a cop can do for his own official use. I can cruise through a parking lot and run every plate of every vehicle I see to find out who owns it, if it’s expired/suspended, etc… But I cannot nonchalantly run peoples names to see who has a concealed weapons license in this state. If I do, I can end up with a fine and jail time.
Yes, they do log the searches, but if someone says he ran some unknown plate for his girlfriend sometime last week, they are not going to investigate every plate he ran last week. Sure they could, but it’s just not going to be worthwhile unless his assignment doesn’t involve running any/many plates- every plate run will leave an audit trail, but not every plate run results in a ticket and he could easily have run a couple of hundred plates that week. Police officers here (and probably everywhere) routinely cruise down the street running every plate looking for expired registrations, cars that are supposed to be towed due to unpaid parking tickets, etc.
Without going into details, I had a means of tracing plates in one state for a while, that did not involve the police. I don’t know if the resource was doing something illegal or not. It doesn’t sound like the worst crime on earth to me, and I suspect it happens a lot.
Frankly, I don’t see why there isn’t a way for a citizen to find the owner of a car based on a license plate number. But I do understand why there have to be some restrictions on this, especially limiting the police from unwarranted intrusions of privacy.
Like I posted earlier, this used to be no big deal. Most states are “open records” states, and in fact it is still quite easy (and legal) to get info on people. It’s just certain prohibitions that make it a little more difficult to get certain informational details on other citizens.
Getting a cop to do it isn’t the way, though. Departmental prohibitions usually stand in the way of this.
