The Queensland Crime and Corruption Commission have charged a 60-year-old former sergeant with misconduct, for allegedly accessing information in Queensland Police‘s crime database, QPRIME, without authorisation 44 times between 2010 and 2016.
Forty-four times feels like a lot – it’s easily the amount of times you have to Facebook-stalk your ex before you’re over it/you find out they already have a new partner, or it’s the amount of times you have to teach your nan how to use Google before she just gives up and makes you both a cup of tea.
The former sergeant allegedly gave the info he uncovered to a 72-year-old man, who is also being charged. They’ve both been given notice to appear in court in July.
It is definitely not the first time Queensland cops have been in trouble for accessing private data not related to their work. The Crime and Corruption Commission have recorded 554 allegations of corruption relating to information misuse in 2016.
That’s actually a drop from the 638 allegations they noted in 2015. The Commission say the change is due to their “focus on pursuing corruption in the public sector relating to the improper release of confidential information” that they intend to continue through to 2018.
Just two weeks ago a 31-year-old Brisbane officer was charged for conducting personal checks using the database, a 43-year-old detective was charged for the same thing three months ago, and last May an officer was actually convicted for using QPRIME to look up people he met on a phone dating line, which is apparently still a thing.
Last month 40-year-old sergeant Steven Patrick Wright was fined $4000, with no conviction recorded, for looking up data not only on his family and friends, but Australian netball captain Laura Geitz, 80 TIMES (!!!) between April and August last year.
This infraction led the Commission to warn the public service last month to not do that, please, its chairman Alan MacSporran saying:
“What may seem like a simple peek at someone else’s private information is actually a serious invasion of privacy.“It can potentially amount to a criminal offence and be the subject of an investigation by the CCC.”
Source: IT News.
Photo: Bradley Kanaris / Getty.
