The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department is already the subject of a federal lawsuit over how it handles concealed carry applications, but the excessive wait times and subjective criteria alleged by the California Rifle & Pistol Association and other 2A groups apparently aren’t the only problematic practices from the agency.
As Reason’s CJ Ciaramella reports, the Electronic Frontier Foundation has discovered the LASD improperly accessed a confidential database on thousands of occasions to do some snooping on applicants.
Two researchers from the EFF discovered through public records requests that California police departments reported 7,275 misuses of the California Law Enforcement Telecommunications System, or CLETS, to the state Department of Justice in 2023. The vast majority of those offenses were committed by the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department (LASD), which was responsible for 6,789 of the violations.
The LASD committed thousands of abuses by violating a specific rule against using CLETS data to run background checks for concealed carry firearm permits. According to meeting notes obtained by the EFF, the LASD unit responsible for the searches was retrained, “and no further incidents of misuse have been identified since.”
The CLETS database provides California law enforcement with access to Department of Motor Vehicle records, national criminal background check information, and the National Law Enforcement Telecommunications System, among other things. Because of the amount of sensitive information on CLETS, there are rules about when and why law enforcement can use it, as well as requiring mandatory reporting of abuses.
It’s unclear what specific details LASD officials were able to access when using CLETS, but the database allows law enforcement to access a wealth of information from a variety of different sources. It’s also unclear whether the thousands of instances of misuse of CLETS led to any applicants being denied a carry permit, but the CRPA lawsuit has detailed multiple instances where individuals have been turned away for specious reasons, including one case where a man’s application was rejected because he was the victim of a car burglary where several handguns were stolen.
While the LASD was responsible for thousands of instances of misusing CLETS, the Electronic Frontier Foundation notes that it’s not the only agency in the state to abuse the system when investigating concealed carry applicants.
As we reviewed the data made public since 2019, there were a few standout situations worth additional reporting. For example, LACSD in 2023 conducted one investigation into CLETS misuse which resulted in substantiating thousands of misuse claims. The Riverside County Sheriff’s Office and Pomona Police Department also found hundreds of violations of access to CLETS the same year.
Some of the highest profile cases include:
- LACSD’s use of criminal justice data for concealed carry permit research, which is specifically forbidden by CLETS rules. According to meeting notes of the CLETS oversight body, LACSD retrained all staff and implemented new processes. However, state Justice Department officials acknowledged that this problem was not unique, and they had documented other agencies abusing the data in the same way.
- A Redding Police Department officer in 2021 was charged with six misdemeanors after being accused of accessing CLETS to set up a traffic stop for his fiancée’s ex-husband, resulting in the man’s car being towed and impounded, the local outlet A News Cafe reported. Court records show the officer was fired, but he was ultimately acquitted by a jury in the criminal case. He now works for a different police department 30 miles away.
- The Folsom Police Department in 2021 fired an officer who was accused of sending racist texts and engaging in sexual misconduct, as well as abusing CLETS. However, the Sacramento County District Attorney told a local TV station it declined to file charges, citing insufficient evidence.
- A Madera Police Officer in 2021 resigned and pleaded guilty to accessing CLETS and providing that information to an unauthorized person. He received a one-year suspended sentence and 100 hours of community service, according to court records. In a statement, the police department said the individual’s “behavior was absolutely inappropriate” and “his actions tarnish the nobility of our profession.”
- A California Highway Patrol officer was charged with improperly accessing CLETS to investigate vehicles his friend was interested in purchasing as part of his automotive business.
Despite the widespread abuse of the law enforcement database, punishment appears to be rare. The EFF reports that between 2019 and 2023 just 55 officers across the state were suspended, another 50 officers resigned, and 42 others were fired. Six officers were convicted of misdemeanor offenses related to the improper use of CLETS, while one officer was convicted of a felony.
Those numbers are for the entire state of California, and EFF hasn’t said how many of those officers who were disciplined worked for the LASD or were involved in processing carry applications.
If nothing else, the EFF’s revelations will provide more fodder for the 2A groups suing the sheriff’s department over its abusive practices and policies. Whether that leads to the courts forcing substantive changes on the LASD, however, is still very much an open question.
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