An investigation initiated by the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism in collaboration with other news organizations found that the Chula Vista Police Department had the highest number of violations involving improper use of a background check database in the state originating from one internal investigation.
CVPD says all of the violations were due to procedural errors.
On Nov. 12, The Sacramento Bee reported that California police have accessed the California Law Enforcement Telecommunications System more than 1,000 times for personal use. Through CLETS, a background check can be conducted on anyone with a driver’s license or criminal record.
CVPD Lt. Dan Peak said that the 38 times CVPD violated CLETS usage policy was not because officers were accessing the data for personal use, but to run background checks on retired officers applying for concealed carry weapon permits.
“Since then the Chula Vista Police Department has taken corrective measures.We take the individual privacy rights very seriously, even that of our retired officers, and we work hard to adhere to all the CLETS requirements and standards,” Peak said.
He added that the high number of violations could be due to running background checks on variations of multiple officers’ names who were requesting concealed carry weapon permits. Peak used his own name as an example and said to run his name through the system, someone could search Daniel Peak, Dan Peak or another potential alternative.
“We had the best intention, we didn’t know we were violating that policy and of course we are aware of it and discovered the error and our personnel have been trained to not do this anymore,” Peak said.
For years, the Electronic Frontier Foundation has been raising concerns about the misuse of CLETS by California police, finding 117 misuses by police in 2016 and 143 violations in 2017, with not all agencies in compliance with disclosing records.
Following their findings, in 2018 the Attorney General’s office enforced new rules requiring all agencies to report CLETS misuse. In 2016 and 2017, CVPD reported no misuse of CLETS, according to data compiled by the EFF.
