Qld Police officer charged with hacking force database

A Queensland police officer has been charged with hacking offences for allegedly using the state's crimes database to look at records without proper authorisation.

The 47-year-old serving sergeant from Brisbane has been under investigation by corruption watchdog the Crime and Corruption Commission.

He was today charged with three counts of misconduct in public office and a further three counts of computer hacking and misuse for allegedly unlawfully accessing the QPrime police database.

He will appear in the Brisbane magistrates court on July 18.

The CCC declined to provide any more detail of the alleged offence while the matter is before the courts.

It's the latest in a string of alleged breaches of the QPrime database by members of the state police force.

This week a former bikini model formally complained to the QPS after discovering through an FOI request that officers had accessed her personal criminal record in QPrime more than 1400 times.

In May a 38-year-old constable was charged with misconduct as well as computer hacking and misuse for allegedly abusing the database, and in March, a 30-year-old constable was hit with 38 charges for similar offences.

Another QPS officer was recently convicted of 50 hacking offences for using the secure crimes database to look up people he met through a phone dating line, the CCC revealed in May.

It said it had completed 15 investigations into unauthorised access of confidential information by officers since July last year. The investigations resulted in 81 criminal charges and 11 disciplinary recommendations.

One of the CCC's most common areas of investigation is government workers accessing and misusing information held in state systems, it said.

“What may seem a simple ‘peek’ by a public servant at someone else’s personal data is not only an invasion of privacy, it’s potentially a criminal offence and grounds for investigation by the Crime and Corruption Commission,” it warned the public service in May.