FDLE: No Wrongdoing By Sheriff In Using Records To Find Critic

[struggle4progress]

POSTED: 7:07 am EDT April 29, 2005

ORLANDO, Fla. -- Orange County Sheriff Kevin Beary didn't violate the law when he had an aide use a restricted driver's license database to track down a woman who wrote to a newspaper criticizing him and calling him "fat," according to an FDLE review released Thursday.

State law limits access to the Florida Driver and Vehicle Information Database for law enforcement purposes only. But Beary's staff didn't appear to use the database for any illegal purpose, according to the review by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.

"Because a law enforcement purpose is not specifically defined in statute, such use is generally left to the discretion of law enforcement officials," FDLE Commissioner Guy M. Tunnell wrote in a letter to Beary dated Tuesday. <snip>

http://www.wftv.com/news/4429915/detail.html

Wait'll the new drivers licenses are standard: folks like this will really be able to track their critics ...

[slor]

1. This is outrageous...

I guess the Gestapo is alive and well.

[Rikimaru]

2. Tell me about it

Next we'll be arrested for Sedition, then thought crime. Scary.

[rocktivity]

3. And what law was he "enforcing"?

Noting that someone is overweight may be impolite or unkind, but it's not a crime, either. She should sue for harassment.

:headbang:
rocknation

[achtung_circus]

4. If I did this I'd lose my job, no defence possible,

the Agency might lose access and I might face charges.