Los Angeles Police Department
Arvind Dilawar | 4.30.2024 1:26 PM
In 2022, the City of Los Angeles Office of the City Attorney settled a public records lawsuit filed by Ben Camacho, a local journalist, under the California Public Records Act. That law grants members of the public access to government records upon request. Camacho had requested headshots of all the Los Angeles Police Department's (LAPD) officers. He was investigating the LAPD after officers allegedly refused to identify themselves to the public in many instances.
"It's all about accountability and transparency," says Camacho. "Nothing more, nothing less."
The city attorney's office denied Camacho's initial request, but after he sued over their refusal, it eventually provided him with a flash drive of the police photos in September 2022. Those photos were then published by the Stop LAPD Spying Coalition (SLSC) on its website Watch the Watchers.
Now, two years later, Camacho and the SLSC are both being sued by the city attorney's office, which claims it provided the police photos in error.
Last March, the LAPD's labor union, the Los Angeles Police Protective League (LAPPL), filed the first in a series of lawsuits related to the........