St. Pete police officer arrested, accused of sharing confidential information with suspect

Officer accused of sharing info with suspect

FOX 13's Kailey Tracy explains why a St. Pete police officer was arrested following the investigation into the plot to blow up the Hard Rock Casino in Tampa.

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. - A St. Petersburg police officer is accused of sharing confidential information from law enforcement databases.

St. Pete police issued an arrest warrant for Officer Brandon Klaiber. He was taken into custody on Tuesday by the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office. Klaiber is facing two counts of offenses against intellectual property.

The backstory:

Late last year, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement notified the St. Petersburg Police Department of potential criminal violations involving Klaiber. They accused him of sharing protected information from law enforcement databases with one of their suspects.

The suspect, Bryan Eckley, was arrested in October 2024, and accused of planting explosive devices at the Seminole Hard Rock Casino in Tampa. The casino had to be evacuated twice after two remote-controlled explosive devices were discovered in bathrooms. Investigators later found firearms, a stun gun, chemical grenades and flashbang devices at Eckley’s home. He has pleaded not guilty.

Investigators with SPPD found text messages between Eckley and Klaiber where Klaiber provided information obtained from restricted databases, like vehicle tag numbers and driver’s license information, to Eckley on people he requested.

Court records show Klaiber’s first offense happened in June 2024 and the second happened in July 2024. The Hard Rock incident happened in September 2024.

What they're saying:

St. Pete Police Chief Anthony Holloway said it’s not clear if Officer Klaiber knew about Eckley’s alleged plans at the Hard Rock, or if the suspect used any of the information to help him with the crime.

Klaiber was placed on administrative leave when the investigation first started, and all his credentials and computer access were suspended. Holloway says Klaiber and Eckley were friends for more than 15 years, and it was "an ongoing thing."

Pictured: Bryan Eckley in a Hillsborough County courtroom.

"It could have been just a friend or somebody who says, ‘hey, can you run this name for me,’" Chief Holloway said. "We're not allowed to do that. I mean, your information is confidential. We in law enforcement should not be giving that information out."

"We all take an oath, and that oath is very important to me, and important to everybody in this police department, because I'm talking to all the law enforcement officers that work here. And for us, we try to figure out why, because again, you, the citizens, give us, you know, that authority to hold confidential information. We should hold that, and exactly what it is, confidential. So, I am very disappointed at this officer for giving away that trust, because you trust us with this. You trust us to use this information the correct way, to catch bad people that are doing bad things in our community," Holloway said.

Dig deeper:

Klaiber has been an officer with SPPD since 2008, and received the Chief’s Award of Excellence in 2020 for his work on an auto theft commercial burglary ring.

The State of Florida limits the access to personal information from police databases to officers only when working in an official capacity. Accessing or sharing private information with an unauthorized person carries a criminal charge for the officer.

Pictured: Brandon Klaiber, the St. Pete police officer arrested for sharing confidential information with Eckley.

Klaiber remains on administrative leave without pay. The investigation is ongoing. Chief Holloway said they’re looking into who else Officer Klaiber may have given protected information to, and if he profited off of it.

SPPD’s Office of Professional Standards will also do an administrative investigation into the allegations.

Holloway said this is the second employee in his 10 years at the department they’ve caught sharing confidential information from law enforcement databases. He said they do a monthly audit department-wide where a name comes up, and they check to see what names the officer has run during that period of time within the databases.

FOX 13 reached out to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement asking how or if Eckley used any of the information the officer provided during the Seminole Hard Rock incident and is waiting to hear back.

The Source: The information in this story was gathered during a news conference held by the St. Pete Police Department about Officer Brandon Klaiber arrest.

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