Skip to main content

Hacker group targets Arizona law enforcement

By the CNN Wire Staff
The hacker group Lulzsec recently hacked into PBS' website, leaving this message to visitors.
The hacker group Lulzsec recently hacked into PBS' website, leaving this message to visitors.
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
  • The group says they released the documents in response to Arizona immigration law
  • The group releases numerous documents on Thursday
  • A law enforcement official says the release put officers and their families in harm's way

(CNN) -- The hacker group LulzSec has alarmed police in Arizona this week after releasing sensitive information about officers.

The group said they posted the information in response to Arizona's controversial immigration law.

"We are releasing hundreds of private intelligence bulletins, training manuals, personal email correspondence, names, phone numbers, addresses and passwords belonging to Arizona law enforcement," the group said in a statement. "We are targeting AZDPS (Arizona Department of Public Safety) specifically because we are against SB 1070 and the racial profiling anti-immigrant police state that is Arizona."

The Arizona Highway Patrol Association said the release of the documents is unsafe for officers.

2010: AZ governor signs immigration bill
RELATED TOPICS

"Law enforcement officials go to many lengths to protect their identities," states Jimmy Chavez, president of the organization "These individuals maliciously released confidential information knowing the safety of DPS employees, and their families, would be compromised."

The controversial bill, Arizona Senate Bill 1070, passed last year but was quickly challenged in court by the Justice Department. The measure would have required local police, while enforcing other laws, to question the immigration status of anyone they suspected of being undocumented.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit placed an injunction on parts of the measure in April saying that those parts overstepped Arizona's authority.

In its lawsuit, the Justice Department challenged only six of the Arizona law's provisions, meaning others went into effect in July.

Among the provisions given the go-ahead were a ban on "sanctuary cities," or municipalities with laws or policies that render them relatively safe for undocumented immigrants. A provision making it illegal to hire day laborers if doing so impedes traffic and a provision dealing with sanctions for employers who hire illegal immigrants also went into effect.

CNN's Anna Rhett Miller and Alta Spells contributed to this report