Kaiser Permanente quietly pulled the plug on an eight-person California security unit after internal and police records raised red flags about whether team members used a state law enforcement network to run background checks on people who were not part of active criminal investigations. The shakeup affected staff in both Northern and Southern California, resulting in multiple departures, including at least one senior security leader. The dispute has thrown a fresh spotlight on the health system’s reliance on former law enforcement officers and its broader private security practices.
According to the Mercury News, the move followed an internal investigation by the Oakland Police Department that flagged possible improper searches of the California Law Enforcement Telecommunications System, or CLETS. The report identifies an Oakland officer who, according to investigators, ran CLETS checks on at least nine individuals tied to the security team’s work and notes that those results may have been passed along to private security staff at Kaiser. Officials have stated that the unit was disbanded while investigations were still ongoing.
Who Left And What Kaiser Says
The controversy triggered firings and exits within Kaiser’s corporate security ranks, including the termination earlier this year of Craig Chew, the system’s national director of corporate security investigations, as reported by Becker’s Hospital Review. Kaiser has told reporters it takes security concerns seriously and cooperates with law enforcement investigations, while some former employees have pushed back and denied directing or ordering any improper database searches.
Whistleblower, OPD Records, And The Chain Of Events
A whistleblower who raised alarms about CLETS access reported that they went to the Oakland police in November 2024, and internal OPD records later documented meetings and searches that drew investigators’ attention, according to reporting by the Davis Vanguard. The timeline in those records shows that physicians and staff had been flagged by security for menacing threats in the fall of 2024, which helped prompt the internal inquiry.
How CLETS Works And Why Misuse Matters
CLETS links state and national law enforcement databases, including criminal histories and DMV records. California law bars non-law enforcement uses of the system. The scale of alleged misuse across the state has been getting more attention, with the Electronic Frontier Foundation documenting thousands of reported CLETS violations in recent years. Privacy advocates argue that uneven enforcement has made it more difficult to deter abuses.
Prosecutors Declined To Charge, And Civil Threats Loom
Alameda County prosecutors ultimately opted not to file criminal charges in the case, saying there was “insufficient evidence to corroborate that a crime had been committed,” according to the Mercury News. At the same time, an attorney for Chew and several former Southern California security employees says she is preparing a defamation lawsuit against Kaiser, setting up a likely civil battle even as administrative and police investigations continue…