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!

WHOOPS, wait a minute! Have we stumbled upon another scandal?

Yesterday we discovered that the City of South Miami and it's police chief individually had been sued by Florida Highway Patrol officer Donna Watts for abusing the state of Florida's D.A.V.I.D. system to gain access to her personal information.  According to what we've been able to dig up, the city and the chief settled the lawsuit for approximately $13,000.  That's all well and good until one of our readers left us this comment...

If South Miami settled, why isn't there a filed voluntary dismissal? Also, the City Commission would have to approve the payment of the settlement, since it's over $5,000.

I'm not sure why there hasn't been a dismissal filed yet, but I do know for certain that if the lawsuit was settled for any amount over $5,000 that the City Commission would have to approve the settlement.  Unfortunately though after a search of all the commission meeting agendas since the lawsuit was filed, I see no mention of this settlement going before the commission.  Now, I have to admit, I just scanned the commission agendas so I could have missed it, if anyone sees otherwise, let me know.  

Now consider for a moment if I am right, what if the lawsuit was settled without the approval of the commission?  How could such a thing have happened?  If indeed it was settled without the commissions approval, is it possible that the whole deal was handled in such a way as to not bring any attention to the lawsuit?  One thing we know for certain is that since the chief of police, Orlando Martinez de Castro, was named in the lawsuit individually, he had to have been served therefore he can't deny knowledge of the lawsuit.  With that said, is it even plausible for this lawsuit and it's alleged settlement not to have made any noise within the city?  Could this be another major cover up within the PD?  We'll dig a little deeper and see what comes up.

We had another interesting comment from yesterdays post as well regarding the officer that actually used his D.A.V.I.D. privileges to look up Trooper Watts' personal information...

Another fact: South Miami PD Officer Armando Perez resigned after he was charged with accessing the trooper's info in D.A.V.I.D. three times.

For our readers from the City of South Miami PD, can anyone confirm this?  If indeed Perez did resign after this lawsuit was filed, at the very least the timing of his resignation is suspect.  What's funny about this whole deal is that Officer Perez is no stranger to controversy  from the Miami Herald article back in November of last year...

Davidson-Schmich’s “nightmare” began on a sunny Thursday about 2 p.m. The German literature professor said he was riding his bicycle on his way home in a rush to watch a Euro Cup soccer game. He was riding westbound on Sunset Drive between the public library and City Hall, 6130 Sunset Dr., when he saw police officer Armando Perez make an illegal left turn.
But what Davidson-Schmich didn’t know was that the officer was responding to a 911 hang up call at Larkin Community Hospital, 7031 SW 62nd Ave., and was therefore allowed to make the left turn.
The father of two children said he wagged his index finger from left to right “to let the officer know that he should not do this.” But Perez said in his report Davidson-Schmich showed him the middle finger, followed him and then started “yelling profanities” as “a crowd of people started gathering and staring.” Davidson-Schmich said there was no such crowd. Police entered one witness statement into evidence.
Perez arrested Davidson-Schmich and took him to Miami-Dade County jail. Stoddard has photos that show bruises on Davidson-Schmich’s arm when he bonded out the next day.
But even if Davidson-Schmich did make a rude comment or gesture at a police officer, that’s not sufficient reason to make an arrest, said Baylor Johnson, a spokesman for the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida. Unless a gesture or speech is threatening, it is protected by the First Amendment, Johnson said.
About a week after the arrest, an officer found a witness, Michel Perez, a Larkin Community Hospital employee. He also corroborated much of the officer’s version, although some of the details were different. For example, the witness said the incident took place at 4:30 p.m., while, the police and Davidson-Schmich said it happened shortly before 2 p.m.
Davidson-Schmich was charged with disorderly conduct, a first degree misdemeanor. The Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office later changed the charge to resisting an officer without violence, also a first degree misdemeanor.

Isn't it funny how things work over at the South Miami PD?  A guy gets arrested for allegedly giving a cop the finger?  And how convenient, a week after the arrest the cops find a witness that saw the whole thing go down?  Amazing how the South Miami PD has the resources to investigate this incident presumably for a full week before they found a witness who only partially corroborated Officer Perez's version of events.  Regardless, if indeed Officer Perez is gone, it seems like Mr. Schmich got the last laugh.

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/11/09/v-print/3089646/south-miami-mayor-city-cops-wrongly.html#storylink=cpy

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?