February 6, 2014

The Free Press

KMSP anchor Alix Kendall says police and other government employees searched the state’s driver’s license database for her information more than 3,800 times over the last ten years. The searches were the “result of curiosity,” Dan Nienaber of The (Mankato, Minn.) Free Press reports Kendall’s attorney said. She’s suing several municipalities for $75,000.

Kendall’s lawsuit claims her name was searched by police officers, sheriff’s deputies and other public employees from agencies all over the state. A few examples from the Mankato area include 23 searches by the Blue Earth County Sheriff’s Department, three searches by the Blue Earth County probation office, two searches by the Mankato Department of Public Safety, five searches by the Lake Crystal Police Department, 11 searches by the Le Sueur County Sheriff’s Department, seven searches by the Le Sueur Police Department and eight searches by the New Ulm Police Department.


Last year a former lawyer for a Minnesota police union said police searched her driver’s license information about 700 times. And in a former St. Paul police officer, Anne Marie Rasmusson, was awarded more than $1 million in a suit about police looking up her information hundreds of times.

“There is nothing that I would say about this driver’s license photo or any of my previous ones that in any way would deserve the attention that they’ve gotten,” she told Jessica Lussenhop, who wrote a feature in City Pages about her ordeal.

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Andrew Beaujon reported on the media for Poynter from 2012 to 2015. He was previously arts editor at TBD.com and managing editor of Washington City…
Andrew Beaujon

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