A veteran Mendota Heights police officer has been suspended for inappropriately looking up driver’s license data of current and former co-workers, city council members, a girlfriend and others.

Following a five-month internal affairs investigation, Mike Shepard was suspended on Feb. 17 for 30 days without pay. He was accused of misusing state driver and vehicle services data and for insubordination for discussing the investigation with the city’s mayor, according to city documents released to the Pioneer Press in response to a public records request.

Shepard, a Mendota Heights officer since 2006, could not be reached for comment Monday. The suspension runs until April 16.

The state’s Driver and Vehicle Services database is accessible to law enforcement agencies and other government employees for limited official purposes. State and federal privacy laws govern law enforcement officers from misusing driver’s license data, which includes information such as a person’s home address, driving record, physical description and photo.

In recent years, several high-profile cases locally have cast light on the misuse of the information and led to federal lawsuits against state agencies and cities. Last month, St. Paul agreed pay $29,500 to settle a lawsuit brought by a Minneapolis police officer who accused St. Paul officers of snooping in her personal driver’s license information.

LATEST TURMOIL FOR DEPARTMENT

Shepard’s discipline is the latest turmoil for the Mendota Heights Police Department, which had other internal investigations of two of its officers in the past year and the December resignation of its longtime chief, Mike Aschenbrener.

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Dakota County celebrates 125th anniversary of Rock Island Swing Bridge Saturday Shepard was put on paid leave Oct. 12, pending results of the internal investigation led by then-Capt. Kelly McCarthy. McCarthy has since become the department’s police chief.

According to McCarthy’s investigation report, Shepard ran the vehicle license plates of 12 people for nonbusiness reasons between June 1 and Oct. 11. People he searched information on included his girlfriend, City Administrator Mark McNeill, an unnamed local police chief and his wife who live in Mendota Heights, city council members and a female Mendota Heights firefighter.

“(Shepard) admitted to previously telling co-workers that he found the (firefighter) attractive,” McCarthy wrote in her report.

The report also concludes that Shepard accessed the driver’s license photos of an acquaintance, as well as a “young female” who recently reported a theft and was identified in the report only by her initials, EDL.

“When asked, “(Shepard) could not provide a business purpose for accessing EDL’s photo or for accessing (the firefighter’s) data while her car was at her house,” the report reads.

OFFICER HAD BEEN WARNED

Shepard had been forewarned that inappropriate use of driver’s data would result in disciplinary action. In 2009, an internal audit at the state Department of Public Safety notified then Chief Aschenbrener that Shepard had misused driver’s data to look up two people. He has since completed training four times on accessing the state’s Driver and Vehicle Services system.

McCarthy said Monday that although misuse of the driver’s data is against the law, charges will not be pursued against Shepard because her internal affairs investigation did not begin with the misuse allegation.

“He was compelled to talk about it, so any statements he made during the investigation could not be used for criminal charges,” she said.

CRIMINAL CHARGES RARE

Charges against officers misusing driver’s data is rare. The most well-known case locally was in 2014, when a former Minnesota Department of Natural Resources officer was sentenced in Ramsey County District Court to two years of probation for improperly accessing driver’s license data on and off the job.

A 2013 report by the state Legislative Auditor’s office found that more than half of Minnesota law enforcement personnel with access to driver’s license data in fiscal year 2012 might have used the access inappropriately — looking up friends, family or even themselves. It recommended that agencies tighten access and better train officers.

McCarthy noted in her report that federal privacy laws governing driver’s license data set minimum damages for abusing personal data at $2,500 per incident.

“Each time Officer Shepard accessed DVS data without a valid reason, he exposed the department to financial liability,” she wrote. “I believe there is no reasonable officer in 2016 who doesn’t understand that inappropriate access of the DVS system is a major infraction.”

OFFICER DISCIPLINED IN PAST

Shepard has been disciplined by the department four times, according to his personnel file.

In 2011, Shepard received a four-day suspension for violating the department’s harassment and discrimination policy stemming from his treatment of a female co-worker, McCarthy’s report said.

In August 2011, he was suspended one day for insubordination.

Shepard has two written reprimands in his file — for disobeying an order and insubordination in January 2010, and for driving at excessive speed and “reflecting a poor image” of the department in September 2010.