In the News
KUTV 2News reported this week on the termination of Washington County Sheriff’s Detective Jeff Johnson for unauthorized personal use of Utah’s Criminal Justice Information System (UCJIS)—a restricted database of federal and state criminal justice files. Unfortunately, the case is not isolated. KUTV’s investigation identified 24 people criminally charged for the same conduct over the past decade, the majority of them law enforcement officers.
Here’s Our Take
Officers who use UCJIS to dig into ex-partners, settle personal grudges, or satisfy curiosity are violating the privacy of Utahns who never consented to being surveilled. Every query is logged with the user’s name and credentials, making violations easy to prove. And yet, officers keep getting caught, which says something about the current penalty.
Under Utah Code § 53-10-108(12)(a), unauthorized database access is a Class B misdemeanor, punishable by up to 180 days in jail. That penalty doesn’t appear to give officers enough pause. Defense attorney and former prosecutor Nathan Evershed told KUTV that upgrading to a Class A misdemeanor might actually deter the conduct. We agree. A badge is not a license to spy on people, and officers who misuse UCJIS aren’t just breaking the law, they’re eroding the public trust that makes policing possible.
Closing
Harsher penalties don’t always deter crime, and Libertas is usually the first to say so. But officers are trained on UCJIS access requirements, sign acknowledgment agreements, and know exactly what they’re doing when they run an unauthorized search. The offense is intentional and targets the exact privacy protections they are sworn to uphold. Libertas Institute is exploring legislation to raise this to a Class A misdemeanor, because the penalty should communicate that this breach of public trust is serious.
