Published on June 18, 2024 at 11:49 am
A former Jacksonville sheriff’s officer has been sentenced to 60 days in jail for giving information to criminals from law enforcement databases.
Christopher Barr, a four-year veteran of the department, pleaded guilty last month to two counts of unauthorized access.
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Sheriff T.K. Waters said Barr was accused of sharing information from the databases with people he described as criminals. It’s a strong possibility he gave the information to people with gang ties, Waters said.
Barr came under suspicion after federal investigators came across cellphone data of a suspect in a separate case, according to an arrest affidavit. Text messages showed that subjects in their case had reached out to Barr, documents show.
Investigators later determined Barr had accessed police systems as far back as November 2022, when someone sent him a text message asking him to check a tag number. Then in September 2023, he is accused of checking a different system where he reviewed a report and shared witnesses’ names.
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Barr resigned from the Sheriff’s Office after his arrest.
