"Denver police officers caught using confidential criminal databases for personal reasons — such as learning a woman's phone number — get only light punishment, allowing the potentially dangerous abuse to continue, the city's independent police monitor wrote"

"Another officer ran a man's license plate seeking information for a friend, who then began driving by the man's house and threatening him, according to the monitor's report."

http://bigstory.ap.org/article/a49833ece6a94e0ea2a569d857e94ebf/denver-monitor-urges-steep-penalty-crime-database-abuse

If you think this is bad, imagine what it's like for agencies without any public scrutiny and access to databases containing nearly all the world's communications.