Two Fairfield, Calif. police officers are under investigation for using department time and resources to search for women they were interested in dating on websites and screening them through a law enforcement database.
According to court documents, Officers Stephen Ruiz and Jacob Glashoff searched for women on dating websites like eHarmony, Match and Tinder while working in the Fairfield Police Department’s investigations bureau.
The officers would then screen women they were interested in by looking them up in the California Law Enforcement Telecommunications System — a confidential statewide law enforcement database that connects to the DMV, state and federal records’ databases. The officers conducted their searches on a government-issued computer.
“I feel like it’s an abuse of their power, using it for their own personal gain,” Fairfield resident Carlos Thompson told CBS13.
Another officer from the Fairfield Police Department reported the abuse to a superior in June. Court documents state the two would hold conversations about their searches openly in front of other officers.
An investigation into the matter is being conducted by another agency, according to the report, and for the time being the officers remain assigned to their duties.
If the investigation finds the abuses did occur, the two could face felony criminal charges.