Do Not Get Caught Doing This

We've all heard the stories. Here's what you risk:

• Steven R. Cordes wanted to help his girlfriend keep tabs on who her teenage daughter was dating and hanging out with.

  So Cordes — director of a Kane County emergency dispatch agency — searched confidential police databases and did criminal background checks on a boyfriend and other friends.

  But the searches were unauthorized — and illegal. On Thursday the 44-year-old Lake in the Hills man on Thursday was sentenced to six months in jail and placed on 30 months probation after he pleaded guilty to official misconduct for running the searches between 2006 and 2008 while he ran Quadcomm, a 911 dispatch center.

As everything is traceable to individual log-on ID's and keylogger programs are running in the backgrounds of most Department computers, there really aren't any excuses to get caught doing anything that doesn't have a police purpose. Just don't.