To Protect and Serve. Not!

If you're like me, you really hate reading articles where someone in a trusted position, such as a police officer or a politician, abuses their position, their authority, or betrays their constituents' trust by putting others in compromising, legal, and often financial jeopardy. Unfortunately, that's just what I came across this morning.

A police sergeant for the University of Central Missouri and his wife have been arrested, accused of identity theft. The couple, James and Amanda Drake, allegedly obtained the stolen names, addresses, and Social Security numbers of 7,000 students and alumni at the university that he was employed to protect and serve. What is not apparent is how they retrieved this information since according to the article I read, there have been no signs of a data breach. The information they had was on printouts that are used for legitimate office reasons. Sounds to me like there may have been someone else on the inside who let a document slip into the wrong hands. I hope they nail that person or group of people as well.

Luckily, so far it appears that there have only been a dozen victims in this crime. Let's hope that number doesn't grow. The university is offering ID theft protection for those affected. I hope they have a background screening process in place as well. If they didn't already have one, it would behoove them to get one now. If they did have one, it might be worth re-evaluating the process and see where the breakdown occurred.

Meanwhile, James Drake has been charged with fraud, use of a credit device and filing a false police report. Amanda Drake has been charged with forgery only. Neither has been charged with stealing the computer printouts that contained the names they both used to commit fraud. I hope they tack that on later as they clearly should not have been in possession of said documents.

I've always thought it's good to know your job from all angles, including inside out, and this is no exception. Let's see how this campus cop and his wife like the view from the other side of the cell.