Civil Liberties

Police Commander Used Official Database To Cyberstalk Women

And if you think he was the only one ...

|

CLEARWATER — Internal investigators say a Clearwater police commander used a law enforcement database more than 100 times during a two-year period for "questionable" purposes, inappropriately looking up personal information about individuals including his ex-wife's boyfriend, a television news reporter and the wives of other police officers.

A summary of the internal investigation, obtained by the Tampa Bay Times, shows that Lt. Richard Crean, 46, of the Clearwater Police Department searched the Florida Driver and Vehicle Information Database, commonly called DAVID, to obtain information about 54 people without an obvious connection to law enforcement work.

Crean's research covered a strange assortment of professional contacts, private acquaintances and celebrities, ranging from WTVT-Ch. 13 morning news anchor Laura Moody to a server at a Clearwater bar whom he looked up 14 times. Investigators found that Crean disproportionately sought information about women between the ages of 24 and 33.