05:53 PM EST on Tuesday, February 28, 2006

FRANKFORT, Ky. -- In late 2003 and early 2004, while Ernie Fletcher was taking over the reins of state government, hundreds of people were applying for state jobs and appointments. State police ran criminal background checks on those folks, and many of those checks were illegal.

“My best estimate is 40, 60 somewhere in that range,” says State Police Commissioner Mark Miller. Those improper background checks were done before Miller was state police commissioner. He ordered an internal inquiry after WHAS11 News raised questions last summer.

Here's what happened: State police improperly used the federal National Crime Information Center (NCIC) to run background checks on potential state employees and appointees. NCIC can only be used to check on law enforcement personnel.

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“I don’t have any expectation that they knew full well that they were incorrectly running them. I think it was a miscommunication at that time,” Miller says.

The commissioner says the violations were no big deal. “To what we can tell here there’s been no violation of anyone’s privacy interests because all of those had waivers.”

One of those who should have signed a waiver permitting a state background check was new Kentucky Horse Racing Authority board member Donna Smith, wife of University of Kentucky basketball coach Tubby Smith. Mrs. Smith doesn't remember whether she signed any waiver, though it still wouldn't have given state police permission to do a federal NCIC check on her. That check found a 20-year-old criminal charge, according to sources.

According to the state police report to the FBI, their former deputy commissioner, Tim Hazelette, was the one who ordered the improper checks. Hazelette is now a commissioner in Fletcher’s transportation cabinet. In December, he told WHAS11 News he had nothing to do with any improper NCIC checks. He hasn't returned our calls since.

No current state police personnel have been disciplined, just trained in the proper and improper uses of the NCIC system.

“We did it wrong, we did the wrong check. We’re gonna correct it and we’re gonna do the right checks from here on out,” Miller says.

According to the FBI, four states have laws permitting the use of NCIC for background checks on their state employees. Kentucky State Police is asking state lawmakers to pass a similar law in Kentucky.