J. Patrick Coolican reports:
At least 12 Metro employees have been found since 2005 to be improperly accessing and disseminating criminal history information for reasons unrelated to police work, according to a Metro filing in a recent lawsuit.
Given Metro’s roughly 6,000 employees, that means one in 500, or 0.2 percent, have been caught improperly accessing and disseminating the information.
Civil libertarians said this raises privacy concerns and questions about the integrity of the department.
“I’m not suggesting there are bad intentions on the part of Metro’s leadership, but 12 breaches of that policy are definitely problematic,” said Gary Peck, former head of the American Civil Liberties Union of Nevada. “One would hope they would take it seriously,” he said.
The revelation in the court document stems from a lawsuit filed against Metro by Stephen Quinn, who claims that police and Department of Motor Vehicles information about him and associates was sought by the son of former Gov. Kenny Guinn in an apparent effort to try to discredit him.
Read more in the Las Vegas Sun.