Absolutely correct, furthermore not only should the public be protected, but they should also be allowed to request an audit of who's querying their information. I had a (low-ranking) member of law enforcement run my plate and send a harassing letter to my family some years back. While it's fortunate nobody in my family was shot by a nutjob, I wasn't able to find out who it was until I ran into him by chance some time later writing a parking ticket (he was only a parking enforcement official).

I commented about this experience more in depth on reddit[1] and also brought up that federal judges have the US Marshals Service to protect them, and our state judges have county sheriff departments to protect them.

[1] https://www.reddit.com/r/newjersey/comments/jxvote/governor_...