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The police department in this West County municipality was talking about using drones as a law enforcement tool. Scott, who in the past few years has become a regular attendee at Board of Aldermen meetings, wanted to make sure there was a protocol to protect citizens’ privacy rights.

He wrote an email to two aldermen about his concerns.

“Whom are they accountable to?� Scott wrote about police.

It was a question four years before its time.

This week, Scott found out that he was one of hundreds of Ballwin residents whose names were run through a criminal justice database, called the Regional Justice Information System (REJIS), by former Police Chief Doug Schaeffler.

Schaeffler was fired in December 2023, in part because of accusations he improperly used REJIS, which includes criminal background, driver’s license and vehicle registration information, among other data. It’s a misdemeanor for a police officer to use the database without a proper law enforcement purpose.

Ballwin has never disclosed to its residents the depths of Schaeffler’s alleged violations. Schaeffler has filed a lawsuit saying his firing was improper. St. Louis Circuit Attorney Gabe Gore is reviewing a report prepared by Ballwin police officers that outlines hundreds of “very questionable� searches by Schaeffler. They include waitresses and bartenders, employees of fitness clubs and cigar lounges, people who complained about Ballwin on social media and at meetings, and people working on the chief’s home.

After my recent column on Schaeffler, Scott wondered if he was one of the people searched.

On Sunday, he emailed Ballwin City Administrator Eric Sterman and asked if he was named in the police report that outlines Scheffler’s alleged abuses.

His name does not appear on that report. But, Sterman told him, his name is on a different list — one not previously disclosed. That list includes names of people who were searched by Schaeffler but were not, for some reason, included in the report that was forwarded to prosecutors.

Sterman confirmed in an e-mail to Scott that his name was searched through the REJIS criminal database on Dec. 4, 2020.

That was the day after Scott emailed the two aldermen, Mark Stallman and Kevin Roach, asking details about drone protocol. Both aldermen responded to the email.

“We strictly enforce adherence to the department’s policies and procedures, which are put in place for the safety and protection of our officers and the residents of Ballwin,� Stallman wrote back to Scott on Dec. 4.

Scott says it can’t be a coincidence that his name was run through REJIS the same day he communicated with aldermen about drones and police protocol.

“What would have triggered the chief to do this to me?� Scott said. “It pretty reasonable to assume that I was run because of my comments to the alderman. One of the two aldermen must have gone to the police chief.�

Roach says it wasn’t him. He did, however, forward Scott’s email to Sterman, the city administrator.

“This gentleman needs some answers,� Roach wrote at the time. “He is asking a lot of really good questions.�

Stallman said he forwarded Scott’s email to Sterman and Schaeffler to get their input on a possible drone policy.

“I had no idea he was running Mike Scott’s name or anybody else’s,� Stallman told me this week.

In an email, Sterman told Scott he didn’t know why the chief ran his name through REJIS.

“Each time that the former Chief ran a search through the system, he did so under the premise of investigating a crime or potential crime,� Sterman wrote. “Of course, only he knows if that is true or not.�

Roach would end up being one of Schaeffler’s searches, too, with his name run through the REJIS database two years later. Scott ran for the Board of Aldermen against Stallman in 2023 but lost.

Scott is one of several people who have contacted me or the city of Ballwin wondering if they are on the list — one of two lists, apparently — of folks that Schaeffler searched. Roach has filed a lawsuit against the city alleging a Sunshine Law violation because the report on the chief that he requested and received was heavily redacted, including the names of other potential victims.

For Scott, his concerns about citizen privacy and the police have proven to be prescient, though the tool in question isn’t a drone but rather a computer keyboard.

“It’s insulting as a citizen to be told that everybody will be respectful of your rights and then they violate them in this fashion,� he said. “I just wanted to be sure that the city had policies to protect its citizens ... I wasn’t wrong.�