content: I think you are confusing the number of people punished for illegally accessing these databases vs the total number of people illegally accessing them.  One can assume that the disproportionate numbers between offense and discipline implies that only GROSSE abuse results in disciplinary action. From the article linked: "In 2013, the Minneapolis Star-Tribune reported on a state audit that found more than half of the state’s 11,000 officers had misused driver data."  Thats 5,500 officers, not accesses, right there in only one year from one state.    It seems discipline for this most likely only occurs in an extreme case such as 'Michigan State Police dispatcher who sold confidential data to lawyers over a period of more than a decade. A Georgia police officer accepted a $1,000 bribe to search a database. A marshal in Colorado “asked his deputies to run license plates of every white pickup truck they saw because his girlfriend was seeing a man who drove a white pickup, according to an investigative report.”'  Not all cops are bad. I'm sure not every illegal access to these databases was done nefariously. I do however feel like officers of the law should be held to a higher standard than the general public.  We entrust an enormous amount of power in these people and sometimes it doesn't feel like that is respected much on either side of the badge anymore. Whether that is because of departmental policies like civil asset forfeiture or just individuals with chips on there shoulders.