In late 2015, Brendan Dunn was pulled over by a New York State trooper for driving with expired registration. The officer handed him a ticket. Then he asked whether Dunn had ever lived in Washington State.
He had. But Dunn wondered what relevance his prior residence had to the traffic stop. His Oldsmobile had New York plates, after all. He asked the officer, but could not get a clear answer. As he and a friend drove away, it dawned on Dunn that the officer had likely seen an alert about him while running his license. A public records request from his lawyer confirmed his suspicion.
That wasn’t supposed to happen. In a settlement agreement resulting from a 2008 wrongful arrest lawsuit, the Seattle Police Department had agreed to remove an officer safety advisory that had been placed on Dunn’s name. Now Dunn is back in court, suing the department for its failure to follow through.
