An ex-cop in Florida is accusing of abusing the Driver and Vehicle Information Database for his own sleazy purposes. Leonel Marines is being investigated by the FBI for allegedly treating the database like a dating website, using it to find and contact women, WBTW. Bradenton Police Chief Melanie Bevan told reporters that Marines appears to have made hundreds of improper queries, and contacted at least 150 women. "He was not utilizing this data for law enforcement whatsoever,” she said. “Instead he was using it in a variety of ways—from social media, cold telephone calls, visits to their home under the guise of being there for police business, you name it—trying to get dates with these women. He was very persistent and successful at times in his efforts to do so."
Marines, a 36-year-old who had been on the Bradenton force for 12 years, was placed on leave after the investigation began in October and later resigned, reports WVLT. Marines, who was briefly suspended in 2012 for misusing the database, was investigated again after the parent of a young woman complained that he had followed her home and asked to speak to her about a "domestic incident," the Washington Post reports. Feeling that something was strange, they refused to let him speak to her. He left after refusing to give them his name or his supervisor's name. The parents then contacted the station. "They were heroes, as far as I’m concerned," Bevan says. (More Florida stories.)
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