Three Warren police officers receive discipline over use of law-enforcement data base
Staff report
WARREN
Three Warren police officers have received disciplinary sanctions for misusing a statewide law-enforcement database for nonlaw-enforcement reasons.
The most-serious action involved Officer Jason McCollum, who was suspended for 10 days (100 hours) without pay for using the system 29 times between July 28, 2014, and Dec. 26, 2014.
“Officer McCollum stated the reason he’d used the system was because he was trying to familiarize himself with it. He stated that he didn’t know that he was not allowed to access the Ohio Law Enforcement Gateway system for unofficial business,” an internal-affairs investigation report written by Internal Affairs Officer Lt. Jeff Cole said.
On July 7, 2014, however, McCollum signed a Request for Access to OHLEG form, which states the system is for “the administration of criminal justice for the official purposes of my agency,” the report says.
McCollum stated he did not read that part of the form, it adds. McCollum said he did not “gain anything” from use of the system.
Two other Warren police officers, Patrick Marsico and David Weber, both used the system one time each for nonlaw-enforcement reasons – Marsico on May 5, 2014, and Weber on April 15, 2014.
Marsico was suspended for one day (10 hours). Weber was ordered to receive counseling but no time off, according to a memo. In all three cases, the misuse was discovered during a random audit by the Ohio Attorney General’s Office, the memo says.
Cole noted in the memo that McCollum’s offense indicated a need for training on the OHLEG website, and a memo was issued to all officers reminding them of the limits in place.