JPD says Crimestoppers chief did not use database improperly

By Gary Scott on April 20, 2016 at 1:02pm

Photo from the Illinois Crimestoppers website.

Questions are being asked about an order of protection filed against the president of the Morgan-Scott Crimestoppers and president of the Illinois Crimestoppers board.                      

Acting on an anonymous tip, WLDS-WEAI News found documentation filed on Christmas Eve of last year in Morgan County Court against Loren Hamilton by a woman who said she was his ex-girlfriend.

The order of protection was granted in January and expires in July. It mandates Hamilton must stay 500 feet away from the woman, who we are not naming in this story.

The order claims Hamilton “used his resources unethically to background check people” the woman associated with.

Hamilton, in addition to his Crimestoppers position, is an employee of the Jacksonville Police Department. Deputy Chief Rodney Cox says the department looked into the matter.

“We obviously heard the allegations and the accusations that he was misusing his position at the department to look people up. We found that he did not utilize our systems in any wrong way,” he says.

“Some of the accusations that he supposedly looked up can also be found in public record. For instance, you can look up a criminal proceedings in Morgan County. But, I will also say, we never did receive a formal complaint. We just heard the accusations and looked into it ourselves and cleared it,” he adds.

In addition, the order claims that Hamilton sent numerous threatening texts towards his ex and her neighbors, and emailed her place of employment’s human resources departmtment in regards to a Faceboook post. She said that jeopoardized her job.