It’s Dangerous To Be Right When The Government Is Wrong
MIAMI, FL – Highway trooper Donna Jane Watts didn’t care that the man she was pulling over for speeding was an off-duty officer. Anyone blazing down the road at over 120 miles an hour should expect to be arrested. What Watts didn’t expect was the backlash against her for simply doing her job.
The ordeal began in October of 2011. Miami officer Fausto Lopez was weaving in and out of lanes at a speed so fast it took Officer Watts over seven minutes just to apprehend him. In video footage of the incident, Watts can be seen approaching the car with her weapon drawn, handcuffing Lopez and disarming him.
When Lopez tries to make excuses for his behavior, Watts isn’t impressed and continues patting him down.
Lopez was ultimately let go for his negligent actions, but Watts, rather than being praised for her efforts, began getting threatening calls from blocked numbers. Some of the calls were pranks, with people placing pizza orders in her name. Other actions were more sinister, and included police vehicles lingering in front of her home.
Watts felt so frightened that, according to her lawsuit, she “started to experience physical symptoms to include dry heaves and nausea when performing basic activities such as opening her mailbox, starting her ignition, or when being followed by a law enforcement vehicle for no apparent reason.”
Concerned at the level of intimidation she was experiencing, Watts filed a public records request with the Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles.
The results were disconcerting.
Over a three-month period, Watts discovered that her personal information had been accessed by at least 88 officers from 25 different jurisdictions. The actions against her are criminal, as they violate the Driver Privacy Protection Act. Under that law, improperly accessing an individual’s profile results in a $2,500 fine per violation. Watts has filed a lawsuit against more than 100 police officers and agencies for illegally accessing her personal information.
“This is an invasion of privacy,” says Mirta Desir, who is representing Watts. “Law enforcement does have access to information most residents don’t and with that level of access there should come a certain amount of care. … This is something that is not supposed to be done.”
The issue has sparked fierce debate between the law enforcement agencies involved and the Department of Justice. The former believe that the case should be thrown out, as the officers were merely viewing the personal data, not selling it. The Department of Justice has responded by stating that Congress has the right to monitor the activities of these officers, no matter what their intent.
“There is value in drivers’ information and a market for it,” Justice Department lawyers said to the AP. “What the defendants fail to recognize is that there is value in drivers’ information whether or not it is actually sold.”
Watts has already accumulated $10,000 from some police agencies that conceded their employees broke the law. Other officers aren’t giving in, and are working to change the law so that the $2,500 fine is removed, unless the officers are selling the data that they are exclusively privy too.
Watts is still working in law enforcement, but has relocated for obvious reasons.
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