DOJ revealed concealed carry permit holders’ information

California Department of Justice officials inadvertently publicized the personal information of thousands of concealed carry permit holders, officials said.

The issue occurred with the department’s launch of 2022 Firearms Dashboard Portal on Monday, according to the Fresno County Sheriff ’s Department, which issued a statement on the issue on Wednesday morning.

CalMatters reported that the dashboard was taken down after “reporters discovered that the open database included the names, home addresses and other personal information of more than 200,000 concealed carry permit holders in the state.” The dashboard had been posted for fewer than 24 hours.

According to Attorney General Rob Bonta’s office, that information included the names, date of birth, gender, race, driver’s license number, addresses and criminal history of people who were both granted and denied a concealed and carry weapons permit between 2011 and 2021.

As of Wednesday morning, the dashboard was still unavailable.

Tony Botti, public information officer for the Fresno County Sheriff ’s Office, said that some California sheriffs were examining the dashboard when they discovered the issue, and they reported it to the California State Sheriff ’s Association, who contacted the DOJ. Following the attorney general’s announcement Wednesday afternoon, which detailed the information released, Botti said the situation was “even worse than we first thought.”

He said it was important for the Fresno office to put out a public announcement about the situation because the county has the most current concealed carry weapon permits in the state, with over 15,000.

Fresno County issued almost 46,000 concealed carry permits over the past decade, according to data from the DOJ dashboard pulled by CalMatters before it was taken down. By contrast, San Francisco issued 11 over the same period of time.

Fresno county officials wrote that, even though the dashboard has been taken down, “portions of private information may have been posted on social media websites,” and encouraged anyone who learned their identity has been compromised to report it to their local law enforcement agency.

In a news release about the launch of the dashboard on Monday, Attorney General Bonta’s office said that, through the dashboard, the DOJ sought to “balance its duties to provide gun violence and firearms data to support research efforts while protecting the personal identifying information in the data the department collects and maintains.”

On Wednesday afternoon, the DOJ confirmed the incident and said that it would notify anyone whose data was exposed, in accordance with California law. It also will provide credit monitoring services for those impacted.

“This unauthorized release of personal information is unacceptable and falls far short of my expectations for this department,” Bonta said in a statement. “I immediately launched an investigation into how this occurred at the California Department of Justice and will take strong corrective measures where necessary.

“The California Department of Justice is entrusted to protect Californians and their data,” he added. “We acknowledge the stress this may cause those individuals whose information was exposed. I am deeply disturbed and angered.”