Los Angeles Sheriff Misused Confidential Database Thousands of Times To Run Concealed Carry Background Checks

Public records obtained by the Electronic Frontier Foundation show how sensitive police databases are used and abused.

Police officers in California improperly accessed a state database of private information more than 7,000 times in 2023, according to a new report by the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), a digital rights and privacy advocacy group.

Two researchers from the EFF discovered through public records requests that California police departments reported 7,275 misuses of the California Law Enforcement Telecommunications System, or CLETS, to the state Department of Justice in 2023. The vast majority of those offenses were committed by the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department (LASD), which was responsible for 6,789 of the violations. 

The LASD committed thousands of abuses by violating a specific rule against using CLETS data to run background checks for concealed carry firearm permits. According to meeting notes obtained by the EFF, the LASD unit responsible for the searches was retrained, "and no further incidents of misuse have been identified since."

The CLETS database provides California law enforcement with access to Department of Motor Vehicle records, national criminal background check information, and the National Law Enforcement Telecommunications System, among other things. Because of the amount of sensitive information on CLETS, there are rules about when and why law enforcement can use it, as well as requiring mandatory reporting of abuses.

"Mandatory data collection on CLETS violations and its disclosure better enables the public to understand and question how databases like CLETS are used and abused," says Beryl Lipton, a senior investigator at EFF and co-author of the report. "The thousands of violations committed by the L.A. County Sheriff highlights just how unfamiliar law enforcement can be with their own policies, how easy it is for police to use sensitive data for prohibited purposes, and the value of transparency in providing oversight of the privileged access to information that law enforcement has."

Other instances of officers abusing CLETS uncovered by the EFF include cops using it to look up information on romantic interests or retaliate against rivals, such as a former Redding police officer who in 2021 used CLETS data to have the pickup truck of his fiancé's ex-husband towed and impounded.

"While many violations resulted only in officers or other staff being retrained in appropriate use of the database, departments across the state reported that violations in 2023 led to 24 officers being suspended, six officers resigning, and nine being fired," the EFF reported.

Police in America now have access to a shocking amount of intrusive surveillance technology, and privacy advocates say there's not enough safeguards or disclosures about how this data is being accessed.

Last year a Sacramento grand jury found that the Sacramento Sheriff's Office was sharing license-plate reader data with law enforcement agencies in states that criminalize abortion, even though California prohibits departments from sharing or selling such data to out-of-state agencies.

"Though often inadequate, policies that outline how surveillance and data sharing can be committed by law enforcement are essential to protecting the privacy and civil liberties of law-abiding individuals," Lipton says. "It's very important that they are followed."

The LASD did not immediately return a request for comment.