FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: David Chapman
Phone: (904) 255-3004
Cell: (904) 524-6626
ChapmanD@coj.net
June 17, 2024
FORMER OFFICER SENTENCED TO 60 DAYS IN JAIL FOR UNAUTHORIZED ACCESS
State Attorney Melissa Nelson announces that the Honorable Tatiana Salvador sentenced Christopher Barr to 60 days in the Duval County jail. Barr previously pleaded guilty on May 14, 2024, in open court to two counts of Unauthorized Access, crimes that were committed while Barr was a sworn law enforcement officer with the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office.
On Jan. 24, 2024, an officer with the JSO Integrity Unit was assigned to investigate Barr after another law enforcement entity reported Barr for searching and disseminating information from a law enforcement database to a subject of an investigation. The investigation revealed a Sept. 19, 2023, group chat with the subject and other people messaging about how they can find out when a certain individual was contacted by police. In the group messages, the subject said he would reach out to Barr. The investigation then found a screenshot of Barr in his JSO patrol car on Facetime with the group chat in the background. The text messages then discussed the names of witnesses who were involved in the incident as listed by JSO reports. The JSO Integrity Unit found that on that same day Barr searched the restricted information database for the incident the subject was asking about.
On Jan. 25, 2024, the JSO Integrity Unit was notified of a second incident where a subject of an investigation asked Barr to run a tag number. Barr searched for the tag number on Nov. 16, 2022.
The case was investigated by the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office and prosecuted by Assistant State Attorney Joe Licandro.