JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Jacksonville Sheriff T.K. Waters said Wednesday a JSO officer has resigned after he was arrested and accused of two counts of offenses against computer users, a third-degree felony.
Christopher Barr is accused of using protected databases while he was an employee to access and disseminate law enforcement information to unauthorized individuals whom Waters referred to as “criminals in our community.” Waters added there is a “very strong possibility” that the criminals are connected to gang activity.
Waters declined to give any more information, including the names of the people whom Barr is accused of informing, citing an ongoing investigation.
After his arrest in January, Barr resigned.
He had been with JSO for four years, Waters said.
Barr’s arrest marks the second arrest of a JSO officer in 2024.
“It doesn’t matter who it is. We won’t tolerate it. And when a member of this agency violates the law, that person will be held accountable,” Waters said.
News4JAX Crime and Safety Analyst Tom Hackney is a retired JSO director of investigations and director. He said there’s a reason why law enforcement databases are restricted to law enforcement officers.
“There is so much information in there. Anybody who has ever been a victim of a crime or witness to a crime. All traffic-stop information. Anyone who was stopped and received a ticket. A field investigation report is written in there. There’s a lot of information that is accessible,” Hackney said.
According to a JSO arrest report, Barr became a focus after federal investigators said Barr may have searched and given information to a subject of their investigation in September of last year.
Investigators said they found cellphone data that showed a text thread conversation where the unknown subject of their investigation was asking about details of a police interaction in Jacksonville. In the thread, the subject was asking others to get information about when another person was contacted by police, according to the arrest report. One of the messages from the person in that thread indicated that he was going to reach out to Barr.
A screenshot from the subject’s phone showed the group message chat in the background and a minimized Facetime conversation that showed Officer Barr in his JSO uniform inside what appeared to be a JSO patrol vehicle.
After the reference to Officer Barr in the thread, messages were sent with names of other witnesses involved in the incident and, according to JSO, those names were only documented in the narrative of the JSO reports written for the case.
The phone number used was the same phone number Barr registered with JSO as his cellphone.
JSO later found that Barr searched the Agency Records Management System (ARMS), a restricted information system, and reviewed a report that had details sought by the subject in the message thread. JSO said 5 minutes after he searched the system, he replied to the text thread with names of other witnesses in the incident that could have only been obtained from the narrative of that report.
The second instance was on Jan. 25, in which Barr accessed the National Crime Information Center, NCIC, to check a motor vehicle tag number, and again, sent the info to targets of a criminal investigation, JSO said.
Barr’s work history shows JSO Internal Affairs has found three times that he violated the agency’s policy on secondary employment. Another time he was found to have violated the body-worn camera policy.
“The unfortunate thing is when these cases occur, not only does it potentially expose undercover officers, but certainly, victims and witnesses whose information is protected by law and they want that protection. If they’re exposed, that could lead to bad consequences,” Hackney said.
Following his arrest, Barr was released on bond. He is scheduled to be arraigned next week.
Hackney also said the recent arrest could have an impact on any of Barr’s previous or pending cases.
“Another side effect of this, or when these occur, is any case that an officer made in the past, defense attorneys and defense council will go back and look at those cases; rightfully so, and decide if the defendant in the case they represented or a current case that’s pending, is that compromised as well.”
According to News4JAX records, there were six cases dating back to 2011 involving JSO employees who were arrested for providing confidential information to unauthorized people.
