An unnamed Eagan police officer’s access to the state’s Driver and Vehicle Services database has been suspended for three months after he accessed a retired police officer’s record for no authorized purpose, according to the Department of Public Safety.
The suspension was effective Nov. 22.
“This is a serious reminder of what can happen when you misuse the system,” said Eagan Police Chief James McDonald.
Earlier in the fall, the Department of Public Safety contacted 18 law enforcement agencies, including the Eagan Police Department, after it found more than 100 staff members from those agencies had accessed a former St. Paul and Eden Prairie police officer’s record more than 400 times during the past four years.
This summer, Anne Marie Rasmusson contacted the department because she suspected members of law enforcement had misused access privileges to the database and looked up her record.
The department ran an audit of the woman’s name in the database. It later asked the 18 agencies to look into whether the access was appropriate. Those contacted included police departments in Bloomington, Burnsville, Cottage Grove, Eagan, Eden Prairie, Isanti, Lakeville, Minnetonka, Minneapolis, St. Paul and the University of Minnesota-Duluth. The Dakota County, Pine County and Ramsey County sheriff’s offices also were notified. The Department of Corrections’ Office of Special Investigations, the FBI’s Minneapolis office, Metro Transit and the State Patrol were contacted, too.
As of Wednesday, 12 had reported back to the Public Safety Department, said spokesman Doug Neville. Three, including Eagan, reported use that was not related to police business. The Department of Corrections and the University of Minnesota-Duluth Police Department received corrective action letters.
“Based on the single access of the data and the fact that you have taken corrective measures, (Driver and Vehicle Services) will not take further action to suspend (redacted) access from DVS Esupport at this time,” Kim Jacobson, data practices coordinator, wrote to the Department of Corrections. “Any future misuse will result in suspension of his access to the DVS database.”
In October, McDonald said that an investigation showed two officers from his department had run the record in question, but only one instance of misuse could be substantiated. That Eagan police officer received an oral reprimand from the police department, and DVS suspended his access to the database.
“It was expected that he would lose some of his privileges. Certainly we’ll have to work around that suspension,” McDonald said. “The main advantage of having access to the DVS system is being able to obtain a picture ID.”
Suspended access happens infrequently, Neville said.
The agencies yet to report findings to the Department of Public Safety are the St. Paul, Minneapolis, Eden Prairie and Bloomington police departments, as well as the State Patrol and Dakota County sheriff’s office.
“The departments have not been forthcoming in providing us information regarding the egregious violations of Ms. Rasmusson’s privacy,” said Jon Strauss, one of her attorneys. “We believe they do not acknowledge the gravity of these multiple incidents. We continue to investigate the serious violations of her privacy and will fully assess all options to address them.”
Brady Gervais can be reached at 651-228-5513. Follow her at twitter.com/bgervais and twitter.com/ppUsualSuspects.
