A Florida wildlife advocate who works with the same state agency he has publicly challenged says he discovered that officials searched his personal driver information 14 times, deepening a controversy over the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission’s scrutiny of environmental activists.
Ben Olsen, a Hendry County landowner and Florida panther advocate, told Local 10 News that a friend first warned him that FWC may have been looking into environmental advocates.
Olsen said his initial reaction was disbelief.
“That’s kind of crazy,” he told the station.
Records reviewed by multiple news organizations show two FWC officers accessed Olsen’s information 14 times in April 2024, according to Axios.
The searches were made through Florida’s Driver and Vehicle Information Database, commonly known as DAVID. The Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles describes DAVID as a system that allows authorized users to immediately retrieve driver and vehicle information. Personal information in motor vehicle records is subject to privacy protections. (FLHSMV information on DAVID)
Olsen told Local 10 that the searches were listed under a claimed criminal investigation.
The discovery is especially striking because Olsen is not simply an outside critic of FWC. Axios reported that he volunteers with the agency’s python-removal efforts and works with biologists monitoring Florida panther activity. At the same time, he has challenged aspects of the Western Everglades Restoration Project, arguing proposed changes could flood family land and important panther habitat.
“Anybody who’s actually making any commotion at meetings is finding themselves under the radar,” Olsen told Local 10.
There is not, however, public evidence establishing that Olsen’s comments at meetings caused FWC personnel to access his records.
FWC says the searches were connected to public safety
FWC has pushed back against suggestions that it was targeting people simply because they criticized the agency.
The commission told Local 10 that searches were conducted after credible threats against commissioners and staff and said its use of DAVID complied with applicable agreements and legal requirements.
FWC Commission Chairman Rodney Barreto previously told the Miami Herald, as reported by Axios, that people signing up to speak at commission meetings were checked after commissioners received threats during the heated debate over Florida’s bear hunt.
That explanation has not satisfied critics.
Axios reported that 21 environmental advocates said their records had been searched, including people involved with Everglades restoration, Biscayne Bay conservation and manatee protection. Some of the database searches dated as far back as 2022.
The timing has also become a key issue in Olsen’s case. His 14 searches occurred in April 2024 — more than a year before the bear-hunt controversy FWC has cited in explaining some of its security concerns.
Olsen also told Axios that he was neutral on the bear hunt and does not use social media.
He told Local 10 he has never made hateful comments online.
“I don’t know what’s going on, but we’re going to get to the bottom of it,” Olsen said.
Internet users question why wildlife critics were being searched
The wider controversy over FWC accessing environmental advocates’ records is already producing a sharp response online.
A recent r/florida discussion on Reddit focused on a separate activist, 72-year-old Jim Watt, whose information was reportedly accessed 34 times. The discussion was about the same broader FWC records-search controversy, rather than Olsen specifically.
One Reddit user reacted sarcastically: “In the free state of Florida?! Well I never.”
Another wrote simply: “Disappointed but not surprised.”
A third commenter argued that critics should be able to raise concerns through official channels without having their personal information examined, writing that it was “ridiculous” for someone to be targeted for speaking out “in the correct manner and place.” These are individual internet comments and do not necessarily reflect broader Florida public opinion.
The online response echoes questions now being raised beyond Olsen’s case.
The Tampa Bay Times reported that Watt was among more than 20 people, many of them outspoken environmental activists or agency critics, whose information was accessed through DAVID in recent years. FWC told the newspaper the searches were conducted for public-safety purposes.
For Olsen, the most troubling question remains why his information was accessed so many times.
His case puts an unusual Florida twist on a broader privacy debate: a volunteer helping the state track invasive snakes and endangered panthers is now asking why the state’s wildlife agency was repeatedly looking him up.
And with more environmental advocates discovering similar searches, pressure on FWC to explain exactly who was checked, why they were checked and what investigators were looking for is unlikely to disappear.
