Courageous Leadership with Travis Yates

The Doxxing of Law Enforcement with Pete James

• Travis Yates • Episode 136

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We sit down with Pete James of OfficerPrivacy.com to break down why doxxing has escalated, how data brokers expose home addresses, and what it takes to protect families. We also announce a waived-fee removal for Minnesota ICE agents and share practical steps to lock down social media.

• why people-search sites endanger officers and families
• how attackers chain social media to data broker records
• real examples of doxxing turning into violence
• initial removal versus continuous monitoring
• practical social media and home privacy tactics
• free removal offer for ICE agents in Minnesota
• who beyond law enforcement should take action

If you are an ICE agent in Minnesota: officerprivacy.com/ice


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Announcement:

Welcome to Courageous Leadership with Travis Yates, where leaders find the insights, advice, and encouragement they need to lead courageously.

Travis Yates:

Welcome back to the show. I'm so honored you decided to spend a few minutes with us here today. And this is an important and a timely episode. I've got Pete James on the show today. He's with OfficerPrivacy.com. He's a former law enforcement 25-year veteran out of California. He was on the show about a year ago, and we talked what his company does because I believe it's the most important officer safety thing that you need to do, both on duty and off-duty, for you and your family. And I just want to welcome Pete and he came in on last-minute notice based on what's going on out in Minnesota as we speak. Uh Pete James, how are you doing, sir?

Pete James:

Good. Thank you, Travis. I appreciate you having me on during this critical moment. This is, you know, our country is facing this chaos again. It is it is unjustified, uh, but officers are vulnerable and they need to protect themselves. So uh thanks for having me on. I appreciate you you helping spread the word.

Travis Yates:

Well, I don't think I don't even think law enforcement understands this. And I know that general citizens don't understand the dangers that are lurking on the internet with every person out there. And Pete, before we kind of get going into what's going on today and future days with you and your company and working with law enforcement, just tell us about your company. What is officer privacy? What do you do? How can people find you?

Pete James:

Yeah, so we exist to help officers feel safe. We protect them and their families, and we do that by scrubbing their private information, which is currently online. At this very moment, if an officer searches their name and the city they live in, and the word address, they will see that their private information is exposed, their home address, the name of their spouse, their email addresses, their phone numbers, sometimes their date of birth, their age. All this information is publicly available. You don't need to spend any money to see it. You don't need to create an account. It's open and available. And this makes um officers vulnerable to the crazies out there.

Travis Yates:

Yeah, and I'm gonna tell people, I'll link up your your your previous episode that we did with us because you go into a lot of why you founded the company and your background on your expertise. We need to just skip that. I'm gonna send everybody to that previous episode and we'll link that up in this show because this is pretty timely. I mean, what we're talking about here, Pete, is life or death. Literally, life or death. There have been people killed because their home address was out on the internet. I mean, I know we're talking the whole world's talking about Minnesota once again, unfortunately, as we speak. But I mean, most people will remember the Minnesota legislator that was killed by that guy. I believe he killed her and her husband. Well, in his car, he had a list of a bunch of potential victims he was going to murder, and he had their addresses. Now, how how did he find those addresses? I know you've seen some of the evidence in that case, Pete.

Pete James:

Yes, and and pictures of the handwritten notes that he made inside a notebook were found inside his car. They were they were uh entered as evidence. And uh fortunately, the officers uh or whoever is in charge of the evidence um took a picture of it and posted it online. You will see that uh allegedly this person um who killed these uh two people uh made notes. In the notes, he was listing the names of people search sites. Now, uh, you know, the assumption is that he uh used those people search sites to find the address, the home address uh of the victims, and then uh went inside the home and killed them. But it's it's we all know this is happening. We all have heard stories about officers getting doxxed. We know that there are dozens and dozens of news stories um that when they finally make the news. But yes, people get killed, judges get killed, uh, cops get um targeted, doxxed, harmed. And it doesn't have to be that way. There is a solution to that. You can help yourself, but you have to take steps to do that.

Travis Yates:

Yeah, officerprivacy.com and Pete correct me if I'm wrong, I think for $199, but $199 a year, this is just taken care of. You don't have to worry about it because you could take you could go in there yourself and take this off of some of these sites, but it comes right back, doesn't it?

Pete James:

That is true. Uh there is a one-time fee of $199. Uh that takes care of the uh initial removal uh to get your information off those sites. And then after that, we do offer continuous uh monitoring at a very affordable price. Um, but uh yes, we we are law enforcement-owned. Uh we only hire US-based uh current or former law enforcement officers here in the US. And this is important because we understand uh the job you're doing, uh the risks that you are taking, uh, that how important it is to secure your privacy. We connect with our clients because we've done the job and we and and and we care. We you're not just a number. We're not some venture capital funded uh big company, big company, uh, big company that outsources your information or outsources the job overseas for somebody else to do it, you know, uh cheaply or you know, at 35 cents an hour. We uh we know the risks. We take uh we take the trust that our clients place in us seriously, and we do everything we can to get them off those sites that are exposing their home address and and and making our clients vulnerable. We we want to fix that for them.

Travis Yates:

Well, I I'm a customer and I will tell everybody listening yes, you need to spend $1009, but you need to also have it monitored because whether you think you have time or not, you don't pay the small fee each month to make sure you have peace of mind because this isn't just about you, Pete. You're not home a lot of the time if you're in law enforcement. Your family is home. And 30 years ago, we probably I mean, I wouldn't I was in the profession 30 years ago. I think we had a P.O. box, nobody could find you, and we were all good. Those days are gone. And what we're seeing today in America is we're seeing not only violence against the profession on and off duty, the threats are off the chart. I mean, there's been a lot of in the news about all these ICE agents are wearing masks, and you have politicians passing laws to prevent that. Well, they know what they're doing, Pete. The reason they're having to wear masks is because of what we're talking about right now. They don't want to, they know that if they're identified, they then they will then be doxxed and them and their families will be at risk. I mean, this is really wicked and evil. I want the audience to understand this is going on with ICE, but it doesn't just apply to ICE. It was just a few years ago it applied to all of law enforcement, right? And so it's not like that's gone away. And I hear this all the time. Oh, the pendulum swung back for pro-law enforcement. Oh, really? The pendulum hadn't gone anywhere. It's just directed its target to Tesla or ICE or whatever the next thing is going to be, right? And um there's, I mean, I I think we don't want to think about the danger, right? Because it's just it blows your mind. But I mean, Pete, as we speak, there's wanted posters hanging up with iCE agents saying they're wanted for murder. And we know what will happen to any ICE agent that gets identified. I mean, we don't want to think about it, but we do. And so what we cannot do is is easily let them have our information. And so I'm just going to open the floor to because you've been in this business a long time, Pete. Is this the highest the danger level and threat level has ever been for law enforcement?

Pete James:

Oh, this is this is the worst it's ever been. Uh, I started my law enforcement career in 1989, and you're right, back then all you had to do was pay uh $2 a month to um uh so that your listing was not uh was not shown. Um for those that uh from from a long long time ago, if you wanted to be private, you would pay an extra dollar ninety nine so that your phone number was not listed in the physical white pages book. And it's funny that back then, you know, you had to pay for not having your information listed, but it's worth it. It's worth the privacy to pay a few dollars to have that done. Now, fast forward with the internet, uh whitepages.com is a very is the most popular and active uh people search sites. And it you can start with a name, an address, a phone number, and find your information online. Not yours, Travis, but but you know, the listeners, if you go to that site and find your information online, and it's not like it like it was before. It's doxing is a real, real thing. It is happening all over the country, it's happening to officers all over the country. Um, and you know, we we exist to help officers with that and help them become more secure, more private, and feel better um and and reduce the tension in their lives from having their information exposed. So that's why we exist. Uh, that's what we do. We're experts in this. And like I said, we're all all current or former U.S. based law enforcement officers. And we're very proud of that because we uh we you know we honestly know what those officers are going through. We we feel for them, and we do everything we can to help protect them.

Travis Yates:

And I'm sure we'll have a few of the crazies that come across this, Pete, and you know, we'll we'll catch the brunt of that in the comments or whatever. Uh, and just to remind them, just in case they're, you know, if they take break from watching the view and dyeing their hair purple, just to remind them federal law enforcement, ICE, is enforcing the federal law passed by the same politicians that are telling you to go out and protest them. Okay, the Democratic Party controlled Washington, D.C. for 50 years, and they could have disbanded ICE and made immigration legal and got rid of all those laws. They did not do so. They don't really, and they really don't want to. They're just making you think that this is something out of the ordinary. This is not out of the ordinary. ICE has been around for a very long time, and their role is to enforce immigration. And so anybody that gets in the way of that is then committing other crimes called obstruction. And so this is not controversial. I know the whole world wants to think it is and it's on fire today as we speak, the day after this tragic incident occurred in Minneapolis. But this is just normal law enforcement operations, it's law enforcement enforcing the laws that are on the books. Now, I say that the crazies aren't going to listen, but I'm also saying that for law enforcement. If you think you are immune to this, it was just a few years ago when you were enforcing laws on the books and you were the target. Let's not act like that will never come back. But next time you need to be prepared. And Pete, you did something yesterday that that's why I wanted to bring you on the show is is obviously you have a business and you have a service, but you are offering this service for free to I'll I'll just let you announce that I may get it wrong, but you're offering this service for free to ICE, I believe, work in the state of Minnesota. Is that correct?

Pete James:

Yes, Travic, correct. And um, you know, we we our team uh had a meeting, our executive team had a meeting yesterday, and when this was unfolding, and we said, look, you know, we've got to make it um we want to provide our services to um those that need it most right now. And those are uh the ICE agents in Minnesota. So we decided uh for ICE agents in Minnesota that we are going to waive the $199 fee that we would normally charge, and uh so that we can get their information off the internet as quickly as possible. So um for ICE agents uh in Minnesota, they can go to officerprivacy.com forward slash ICE and they can sign up, uh receive our services at no cost, and we're happy to do that. It's important to us, it's it's a priority. We support uh law enforcement officers. Uh, and like you said, yes, they are enforcing the laws passed by Congress years ago. They're not doing anything wrong. They are not the problem. If somebody has a problem with that, they need to talk to their legislators and change the law. But uh right now, uh ICE ICE agents uh are especially in danger. So we are going to provide uh our services to them for free.

Travis Yates:

And some people may think that I kind of came off a lot a little harsh, not about the people watching the view, but everybody else, Pete. But let me tell you why I'm coming down on those politicians because their rhetoric, their escalation, and their lies to the public about what ICE is and what the federal law says, because they know this is perfectly legal what they're doing, enforcing the laws of the United States of America. It's creating other people doing crazy things. I mean, I've never heard of people following law enforcement around all day trying to get in their way of doing their job. I mean, I couldn't even imagine that from a local law enforcement level of everywhere you go, there's just people screaming and yelling, following you around in their cars. That's what ICE is dealing with. But more urgently is we have websites that have gone up, Pete, that are actively trying to identify as many ICE officers as possible with their pictures, with their names, all the information that's out there, and they are broadcasting that to the world. I mean, this is unbelievable that not everyone is outraged by this. But what we have in this country is we have actual leaders in this country that are encouraging this. What's your thoughts on that?

Pete James:

Yeah, uh, Travis, you're absolutely right. There are websites out there that are actively uh collecting officers' information, and they will say on that site, look, use any open source that you can to find that officer's um information and then post it here so that everyone else can see it. Obviously, one of the one of the easiest places to find personal information are the people search sites that we remove our clients from. So they also search for their social media profiles, um, their Facebook, their Instagram, their LinkedIns. They will also post those. They will scrape those pages and post pictures of them. Um so it's important to really lock down your social media if you must have social media, um to and get yourself off those uh those people search sites so that that information won't be then copied and then uploaded to these other sites. We can't take them off those other sites once once they get on there. We can take them off the people search sites, the data broker sites, but once somebody else takes them, uh we cannot. We nobody's gonna be able to get them to take that information down, uh, maybe with a court order, but then by then, you know, it's it's been copied by others and and saved. So so it really takes um some uh some proactive behavior to say, okay, yes, I identify that this is a problem. And number two, I'm gonna do something about that and solve this problem. So that's really what it takes. Um back to your your comment about the politicians. Um we are um we all understand that before somebody is convicted, we put uh alleged in front of uh in front of their name. Um yet that wasn't happening yesterday with politicians on TV. One of them came out and flat out said that the ice agent murdered um the lady. Well, that sounds like that doesn't sound allegedly. I didn't hear the word alleged in there. This person was uh murder is a criminal statute. Uh this politician came right out and said the ICE agent murdered that lady. Uh, didn't say allegedly murdered. Um, so everyone else is held to a standard. Um, some are not. And it is uh it is disgusting that these politicians can say that, that they are not held accountable, that there are no repercussions to them. And yes, they are riling up people, um often not the most mentally stable, uh, who will go out and do stupid things. Uh yet they will, yet the politicians will never be be held accountable for that. It is, it is really, really sad that we can't be all a little more civil.

Travis Yates:

Yeah, Pete, I mean, I I guess if I don't know if anybody is listening that needs to hear this, but the people that are running out there and protesting and getting in the way of law enforcement activity and they're online acting crazy and they're gathering information about they're being used by the politicians. The politicians are mouthing it, knowing that it's just 1% of the people that follow them are crazy that they'll get a significant following and significant action. And so they're being used because uh they don't care about you because they're lying to you. It's propaganda, and they and they're using you for a political angle. And it's really sad, it's really unfortunate. This, what happened yesterday isn't even political. I know that sounds crazy because everything's political. No, that was, as I said, that was law enforcement conducting law enforcement activity, and a use of force action happened. We could have a debate about that later because there's no sense of debating out. We don't have enough information. Nobody has enough information. Anyone that has knows anything about use of force would not dare run out right now and say this or that because you need more information. I feel bad for the people, frankly, that are doing it because they're so misinformed. That's not our job today to try to inform them because you know they've got to think for themselves and have some critical thinking skills. But our job today is to protect law enforcement. And I think you're right. Uh I've about I I haven't been attuned as much as you have, Pete, but I see the threats now more than ever. And we've got to protect ourselves. And you will do this for non-law enforcement as well, won't you?

Pete James:

Yes. Uh, while we we focus on law enforcement, uh being former law enforcement myself and our company, and even the name officer privacy, uh our uh the majority of our clients are law enforcement officers. Uh, but you don't have to be in law enforcement to sign up. Um many of the spouses sign up, many people who uh are everything from influencers to anybody um uh who is public in any way, um, everything from you know workers' comp attorneys to influencers, uh victims of harassment, stalking, um a wide variety of uh professions end up uh coming. To us and signing up because we are really good at what we do. So we um um, but yes, you don't need to be uh law enforcement to sign up. Uh everyone deserves privacy.

Travis Yates:

Yeah, you guys are really good, you're the best out there. I wouldn't trust it with anybody else, so I can't encourage people enough to go check you out. Give them the website again, Pete. Once again, if you're just now joining us, uh Pete is offering this service for free for the ICE agents that are working in the state of Minnesota. It's an incredible offer. And uh I have to think you're gonna be very, very busy this week, Pete, because uh if they weren't already protecting themselves, they have to now. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if you don't get a call from, I don't know, some government government contractor to just give you a whole bunch of money, hopefully, to just protect all of federal law enforcement because it's not even an option anymore. And it's sad that we have to say that. I mean, I keep saying I I've seen it all, but obviously we haven't. I never thought that our country would be in a position it's in. We don't have enough time to talk about why it is. I just wish people would set back and take a breath and think for themselves for a change because they're being manipulated at a level that I've never seen.

Pete James:

Thank you, Travis. Yes, uh main website is officerprivacy.com. Uh, if you are an ICE agent in Minnesota, officerprivacy.com forward slash ice. And if you know any ICE agents in Minnesota, please share this with them. We uh we have reached out to them and we have many current clients um who are who have let them know, but um please let them know about this offer for them, officerprivacy.com forward slash ice, and we will remove their information for free at no cost.

Travis Yates:

Pete James, thank you so much for what you do for the profession. It's an incredible legacy that you've built here. You've helped so many people. Thanks again for being on the show.

Pete James:

Thank you, Travis. I have a great team. I have a great team, and uh we all care about the mission and um we enjoy what we do. We feel that it's very worthwhile uh to help officers, and uh it truly is uh a team effort with us. We have a great team.

Travis Yates:

Thank you for watching. Thank you for listening, and thank you, Pete. Just remember lead on and stay courageous.

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