Sheriff’s Deputy used info gained from a traffic stop to find a woman on social media to hit on her

Location: Virginia

Posting this on behalf of a friend. She was passing through a rural area of Virginia and an officer initiated a traffic stop due to an expired State Inspection sticker.

Officer asked for her license, but not her registration or insurance. He went to his car, came back and told her she was free to go and just warned her.

A day later, she received a message on her social media from said officer. Officer, despite having a newborn child with his partner, then engaged in inappropriate behavior complimenting this persons physique and linking his Snapchat.

I am aware of the idea of bringing the evidence over to the Sheriff’s department’s Internal Affairs or equivalent type complaint. This raises some issues: this is a very small jurisdiction with maybe 20 or 30 deputies. There is a good chance nothing comes of it / it gets buried. It gets worse in that the small community aspect comes into play in her having family in this area – her fear of officers hassling/harrassing her family is legitimate.

So where do you go from there?

It’s disturbing for so many reasons, including that he seemingly initiated the stop just to hit on this girl, that he found her and immediately started sending messages like this suggests to me that this is likely not the first time that this man has done this either. This isnt exactly an ethical gray area – its extremely disgusting to get someones personal information in this way and I would gather, although I am not sure exactly *how*, very very illegal.

Do state police investigators have some sort of jurisdiction here? The abuse of authority is insane.

Thanks for your opinions on this.