Records Show Nearly 300 Allegations That CBP Employees Misused Government Databases — to Track Exes, Coworkers and, in Some Cases, Tip Off Traffickers

Internal records obtained by Wired through Freedom of Information Act requests to Customs and Border Protection's Office of Professional Responsibility document alleged misuse of sensitive law enforcement databases by CBP employees and contractors, in reporting published Aug. 13. Of nearly 300 data-related entries, 138 were referred to CBP management, 78 were assigned to criminal investigators and 43 were logged as information only. The allegations include an officer who used a database to contact a flight attendant, another who used trusted-traveler application data to ask people out, an employee who passed border-crossing data to a party in a divorce, and one who tracked coworkers' cell phones using commercial location data.

The files cover 2009 through 2022 and so predate the current administration, but they bear on a department whose access to personal data has expanded substantially since.

CBP told Wired it takes misconduct allegations seriously and takes appropriate investigatory, corrective and disciplinary action. Twenty-one entries were withheld, citing potential law enforcement proceedings.