Abusing D.A.V.I.D.

Nah, we're not talking about a priest molesting some kid named David.  In this case D.A.V.I.D. is an acronym for the state of Florida's Driver And Vehicle Information Database a secured database that's available to every law enforcement agency in the state which stores a persons drivers license information including home address, social security number, driving history etc.  Along with access to the D.A.V.I.D. system, law enforcement agencies also have the ability to search the federal National Crime Information Center (aka NCIC) which is a database of criminal justice information, criminal record history, stolen property information, missing persons, etc.  

That's all well and good when you're a cop searching for bad guys and need to get the low down on them, but what happens when a law enforcement officer or agency abuses the system?  A perfect example of just such an abuse of the D.A.V.I.D. or N.C.I.C. systems would be if a cop sees an attractive woman driving down the road and decides to find out who she is by running her license plate number in order to access her personal information, sounds stalker like, yet it happens on a daily basis.  On the other hand, say you're a cop and decide to abuse these databases to find out sensitive information against your adversaries?  Or what if you're a police chief in a tiny little two and a half square mile city and you have some guy with a blog that's made a hobby out of uncovering your misdeeds?  Does it stand to reason that this chief would go ahead and use one of these databases to delve into his antagonists past?  It's possible, in fact several people have told me that there is one such police chief that does just that, I'm told that this particular police chief uses both the D.A.V.I.D. and N.C.I.C. system to dig up dirt on his adversaries and political detractors with relative impunity.  

That misuse of these databases would be in violation of the terms of use for both these databases, in fact, when you log into the state of Florida's D.A.V.I.D. system, you're greeted with the following warning...

All data contained within the DAVID system is sensitive and privileged information and shall be handled accordingly. To maintain the integrity of this information, the records will be accorded proper management and security, and will only be accessed and used by authorized personnel in accordance with state and federal law. 

Activity associated with any aspect of the DAVID system is subject to detailed monitoring and audits to protect against improper or unauthorized use. Unauthorized use includes, but is not limited to, queries not related to a legitimate business purpose,
personal use, dissemination, sharing, copying, or passing of DAVID information to unauthorized users and could result in civil proceedings against the offending agency and or criminal proceedings against any user or other person involved. Violations
or misuse may also subject the user and the user’s agency to administrative sanctions and possible disciplinary action by their agency, and could result in DAVID access termination.  

Accessing the DAVID system by any individual or agency constitutes their consent to the monitoring of all activities, as well as consent to the suspension or termination of their access privileges during or following any audit that determines misuse of the system.

That's a good enough warning isn't it?  There are two parts of this warning that I think warrant additional attention, first...

Unauthorized use includes, but is not limited to, queries not related to a legitimate business purpose, personal use, dissemination, sharing, copying, or passing ofDAVID information to unauthorized users and could result in civil proceedings against the offending agency and or criminal proceedings against any user or other person involved.

In other words, fuck around with this system and misuse it then be prepared to deal with the consequences.  And then this...

Activity associated with any aspect of the DAVID system is subject to detailed monitoring and audits to protect against improper or unauthorized use.

In a nutshell, what this part means is that once you log in and start running people's names, you're leaving an electronic fingerprint on everything you do.  That's all well and good, it seems like a reasonable system with adequate checks and balances to deal with people who abuse the system.  I don't know much about the federal N.C.I.S. system, but I have to imagine it must have the same mechanisms in place.

So what's this all got to do with anything?  Like I said before, in addition to several different people telling me, I've always had a hunch that a certain police chief that we've been writing about lately and his cronies have been abusing the state and federal databases, I never though much of it as I had no idea that there were such stringent security measures in place that kept records of who was accessing these databases.  What alerted me to this topic was a lawsuit filed by Florida Highway Patrol Officer Donna Watts, for those of you who don't remember Trooper Watts, she's the FHP officer that pulled over the City of Miami cop for speeding on the Turnpike.  After her infamous chase video was aired, a war broke out between virtually every law enforcement agency and trooper Watts regarding the incident, from the Jalopnik article regarding the incident...

A war is brewing in South Florida, but don't look to the police to protect you. They're the ones who are fighting. Members of the Miami-Dade Police Department aren't taking kindly to having one of their own arrested at gunpoint by a State Trooper and now the threats and insults are flying.
It started last month when Miami Officer Fausto Lopez was pulled over in his squad car for driving 120 MPH en route to an off-duty job. Florida Highway Patrol (FHP) Trooper Donna Jane Watts pulled him over, gun drawn, and put him in handcuffs.
Miami cops are complaining that it was an overreaction. Florida Highway Patrol, mostly, is backing up their trooper and claiming the Miami PD is full of would-be David Carusos. And it's getting worse.
The head of the Miami Fraternal Order of Police sent out a letter defending Lopez with the obviously coded remark "Do not be running her information on DAVID, FCIC/NCIC, etc." referring to databases used by law enforcement.

It turns out despite the warnings, several law enforcement officers did just that, once they had Trooper Watts personal information, they started crank calling her, showing up at her house to intimidate her, smearing feces all over her car, etc.  Trooper Watts then turned around and subpoenaed the state and got the names of everyone that used the state's D.A.V.I.D. system to access her personal information and then slammed all the offending cops and their respective agencies.  Here's the lawsuit...

  Trooper Donna Watts lawsuit against the City of South Miami and Orlando Martinez de Castro by  

Wouldn't you know it?  Who's named in this lawsuit other than our friend, embattled City of South Miami Police Chief Orlando Martinez de Castro!  How do you like them apples!  While the lawsuit doesn't allege that the chief himself used the databases to access the trooper's information, it alleges that one of his officers did, specifically...

Defendant City of South Miami has not provided a determination as to whether Armando Perez has a legitimate law enforcement purpose for obtaining Watts private driver’s license information to Plaintiff.

It goes on to say...

Defendant Armando Perez accessed Watts private personal information three (3) times on November 1, 2011.

Now, why the hell would Officer Perez do such a thing?  Regardless of why Officer Perez abused the system, I think his behavior indicates a pattern of behavior within the City of South Miami PD.  I'll bet that if I were to get together a list of the chief's political foes and submit them to the state that we'd see an inordinate number of them have been run through the states D.A.V.I.D. system or the federal N.C.I.C. system.

With that said, I wonder what happened to Trooper Watts' lawsuit, I've heard rumors that the City of South Miami has settled with her and ponied up $13,000.  If indeed that is the case, I wonder where that settlement money came from.  In the meantime, I think it's time to get an attorney to start looking into the subject of who's been running certain names in the D.A.V.I.D. and N.C.I.C. databases, who knows, maybe I can pick up an extra $13k?