November 29, 2005
Crooks Covet Cops Databases
There is no indication the officer actually identified an informer, or that his prying into the REJIS database led to anyone being hurt. Yet the accusation against St. Louis police Officer Antoine Gordon, who has since resigned, suggests that crime rings can target REJIS or other databases to insulate themselves against investigations.
[The widely used REJIS system, formally known as the Regional Justice Information Service, was launched in the mid-1970s for sharing information between St. Louis and St. Louis County. It evolved to include some 200 organizations, in Missouri and Illinois. Most are police departments, but others include prosecutors, courts and correctional agencies.]
Joe Mokwa, the St. Louis chief of police, said recently that he was unaware of anyone's safety being endangered by any breach of confidential information by Gordon.
Mokwa said officers use REJIS on a daily basis, and tightening security would be burdensome. "You have to rely upon the integrity of officers to use the system properly," he said. "To change it, you would have to restrict their access."
~The number of times in this story we're assured that no one was harmed by this officer's alleged spying for a drug gang got me thinking that in some police departments cops might routinely be "running record checks for friends and family". That record checks coud be one of the perks of being a cop and a way to supplement one's income. All the departments' would need to do is to selectively ignore it's REJIS' password protection alerts? Maybe the feds keep a close watch on who uses those databases? (I don't have a clue.)
Maybe the above excuses are St Louis' way of assuring their undercover officers and informants that no rival drug lords have lists of their names?
I wonder how much former-Officer Gordon's alleged breach of conduct will ultimately cost the St. Louis police department? If we'll ever learn if anyone important was harmed? How many years before stories about hit-lists in St. Louis and So. Illinois disappear?
[illus, not from above]