Do you think someone in law enforcement is abusing the state's D.A.V.I.D. system to get information on you?

A few weeks back we discussed the potential for a law enforcement officer to abuse the state's Driver And Vehicle Information Database aka D.A.V.I.D. to glean personal information on someone that they have no open criminal investigation into or otherwise have no reason to inquire about.  Think about it, say you're a cop and see a hot chick driving next to you, you want to get more information on them, IE home address, name, etc so you go ahead and run their license plate number through the D.A.V.I.D. system and just like that, viola, you have everything you need to know about them, home address, name, date of birth, etc.  Or how about if you're in law enforcement and there's someone that you don't care for that's bothering you, you want to know a little more about them?  Simple, plug their name into the D.A.V.I.D. system and you got everything you need to know about them, home address, criminal history if any, etc.

Now, during the course of our coverage of the goings on over at the City of South Miami, we've been told time and time again that the cops over there, specifically the chief, Orlando Martinez de Castro, abuse both the D.A.V.I.D. system as well as the federal N.C.I.C. system to obtain information on people they don't like.   We also uncovered evidence of these types of abuses when we discovered that embattled City of South Miami police chief, Orlando Martinez de Castro was being sued because of his departments abuse of the D.A.V.I.D system.  So what's the big deal?  It's simple, it's illegal for cops to abuse these databases in this manner, if you bust them doing so, they'll get their asses handed to them on a plate.  But how are you supposed to prove that someone is abusing the system?  After a few months of researching the subject and with the help of one of our readers, we've finally figured out a simple method for a citizen to find out whether or not someone in law enforcement is using these databases to illegally obtain private information.  Here's a simple step by step procedure for finding out if a law enforcement officer has been poking around the state's databases looking you up:

• Send a D.A.V.I.D. audit request to  CherylZenoz@flhsmv.gov  and  TeriCrews@flhsmv.gov.  Include your name, date of birth, drivers license number, and your home address.
• Include the areas of Florida you want searched.  If you think someone in South Miami is looking you up, I'd suggest you have all of Miami Dade county searched, or for shit's and grins, just go ahead and specify the entire state of Florida, searching both local police and the sheriff's requests.
• When you make the D.A.V.I.D. audit request, include the date range you want searched, for example, I started writing about South Miami about a year and half ago, so in my instance it would make sense to search from January 1, 2011 to "present".

If you follow those simple steps, the good folks up at the Florida Department of Highway Safety & Motor Vehicles will give you a report either by email, regular mail or both depending on what you specify at the time of your request.  The costs aren't all that bad either, the state charges $19.08 for the first hour of search, and bill you for anything beyond that. I'm going to assume that they won't go nuts like the MDPD did when they asked me for nearly $500,000 a few years back in response to a simple group of emails I asked for in a public information request!


While you're at it, you might as well go ahead and ask the state for a Florida Department of Law Enforcement Transaction Audit Report (aka FDLE TAR report) so you can see if anyone else has been  asking the state for public records that pertain to you.  You can get a FDLE TAR report by sending an email request with your name, date of birth, drivers license number, and your home address to publicrecords@fdle.state.fl.us , make sure your request is marked "Public Records Request".

So there you have it.  We no longer have to hear rumors and worry about cops abusing the D.A.V.I.D. system, now we can get the proof!  If indeed these databases are being abused, then lookout as the cops doing so are going to be in deep shit!