DETROIT - Michigan police have used the state's law enforcement database to stalk women, threaten motorists and settle scores, the Detroit Free Press reported Tuesday.
The newspaper examined hundreds of pages of records for the Law Enforcement Information Network and concluded that abusers have turned the high-tech crime fighting tool into a personal search engine.

The Free Press said it found more than 90 Michigan police officers, dispatchers, federal agents and security guards have misused the LEIN system.

"I wouldn't doubt that it happens very often," said Lawrence Carey, former Plymouth Township police chief. "A lot of them are taken care of internally."

LEIN was set up in 1967. It searches the FBI's National Crime Information Center, the Michigan Secretary of State vehicle registration system and driving histories along with other databases.

It can tell police whether there are outstanding warrants on an individual, whether an individual is a sex offender, was reported missing or is deemed dangerous, as well as confidential information such as an individual's address or whether someone has a suppressed juvenile record.

A suburban Detroit jail guard, whose Internet name is "BRN 2B NAKED," allegedly used LEIN to gather personal information about a woman he met on the Internet. He then allegedly stalked the woman and later was fired for conduct unbecoming to an officer.