Police Unlawfully Searching Your Driver Profiles
We have been contacted by several Florida residents who report being searched or tracked in the DAVID (driver database) and through Flock license plate reader systems without any apparent reason. Among those reporting misuse are several women who had no knowledge of any law-enforcement incident involving them. DAVID, Florida’s driver database, is easily exploitable when misused. It allows officers to access extensive personal information, including photographs, vehicle details, home addresses, and other data that would otherwise be private and not readily available to the general public through standard public-records requests. With only a few clicks, officers can also view emergency contact information. This level of access highlights the potential for abuse when safeguards and accountability are not properly enforced.
These systems are designed to assist law enforcement with legitimate searches and identity verification, not to access personal information out of curiosity. In some cases, officers have used these systems to bypass standard background-check procedures for family members.
Stephen Checksfield of the Edgewater Police Department resigned from the department last year. No formal internal investigation was conducted; however, official letters from the department indicate that several individuals were improperly searched by Checksfield.
At the Orlando Police Department, internal audits revealed that at least 12 officers improperly accessed the state’s DAVID database for non-law-enforcement purposes, including looking up personal contacts and coworkers. The officers were disciplined with suspensions after the misuse was confirmed.
Christian Mercado, a dispatcher with the Port Richey Police Department, was fired after investigators found he used DAVID to look up personal information on a teenage girl without any lawful purpose.
A patrol officer with the Jacksonville Beach Police Department resigned while under investigation after being accused of improperly accessing the statewide database to retrieve personal information unrelated to any investigation.
At the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office, former officer Robert Parrish was arrested and charged with a felony for illegally searching a secure law-enforcement database for personal reasons. Another JSO officer, Allen LeSage, was previously arrested after investigators determined he ran license plate and database searches connected to a personal relationship.
In Fort Lauderdale, detective Henry Lockwood was terminated from the Fort Lauderdale Police Department after an internal affairs investigation found dozens of unauthorized database queries tied to private, non-official matters. The case was referred for potential criminal review.
Jarmarus Brown, a patrol officer with the Orange City Police Department, was arrested after investigators determined he allegedly used law enforcement technology, including license plate reader systems, to track a woman he had previously dated. According to arrest records, Brown accessed the systems repeatedly without any legitimate law-enforcement purpose and later admitted the searches were personal in nature. He was charged with stalking and unauthorized access to a computer system, and the department initiated termination proceedings following his arrest.
In addition to the DAVID driver database, Flock Safety license plate readers present a powerful and concerning method of tracking individuals. In Edgewater, Florida, records indicate that Officer Parker Lee Sweeny and Officer Adam D. Guthrie of the Edgewater Police Department conducted repeated Flock tag reader searches involving me over an extended period of time.
These searches occurred without any known criminal investigation, traffic stop, or lawful reason communicated to me. License plate reader systems such as Flock can reveal a person’s movements, locations, and patterns of travel, effectively creating a historical record of where someone has been. When used outside of a legitimate law-enforcement purpose, this technology becomes a surveillance tool capable of invading personal privacy.
The repeated searches raise serious questions about whether Flock was used for official duties or personal curiosity. Unlike traditional policing methods, license plate reader systems operate silently, meaning individuals may never know they were tracked unless records are later uncovered. This lack of transparency underscores the need for strict oversight, auditing, and accountability when agencies deploy advanced surveillance technology on the public.
Want to know how to check to see if you've been searched? You can start with visiting https://haveibeenflocked.com/ and punch in your tag number. This is a partial database, and you can reach out to each agency for their audits.
For DAVID, you can contact DHSMV with your driver license, tag info and request it for a certain amount of time. Those emails are publicrecords@flhsmv.gov or DAVIDSupport@flhsmv.gov
Be Sure to ask for emergency contact access. If anyone looks at that without a proper purpose, its a crime.
