After more than a year of claiming that hundreds of undercover Los Angeles Police Department officers were at risk after photos were accidentally released, the city abruptly reversed course and revealed that most of the people involved were police officers. He admitted that he did not have the most sensitive duties.
In a series of court filings last week, city attorneys argued that the approximately 900 police officers whose names have been withheld so far do not have the right to remain anonymous, and asked a judge that the lawsuit be filed against them. He asked them to order him to identify himself. The city will proceed. The city is also seeking a complete dismissal of the lawsuit.
The case revolves around the publication in March 2023 of a photo by journalist Ben Camacho and the activist group Stop LAPD Spy Coalition on the website Watch the Watchers. The city released a mugshot-style image of the person, along with their name and race. The demographic details of the officers who responded to the public records request drew ire from the Los Angeles Police Department and led to claims by the LAPD and city leaders that undercover officers were at risk.
Multiple police officers said in anonymous filings earlier this year that they had been forced to increase security in their homes and pay for online services to erase their identities from internet searches. Some people even sold their homes and relocated out of an abundance of caution.
But in a filing this week, city attorneys told the court that while some officers may have conducted undercover operations in the past or may wish to do so in the future, “these 900 There is currently no true full-time ‘covert operative’ among the Doe Plaintiffs.” Official. ”
Assistant City Attorney Hector Emilio Coria said in an affidavit that he was part of a team of attorneys and staff in the City Attorney’s Office that carefully investigated the backgrounds of most of the plaintiff’s employees.
Collier said photos of many of the officers involved have already been published on the LAPD Museum’s Facebook page, and the museum has published a 2019 yearbook with their names, ranks and duties. He said there was.
The yearbook is still available for purchase online and is currently only sold to current and former law enforcement personnel, but Collier has used the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine to confirm that these restrictions will be lifted in November 2022. He said the results showed that the law had not been recently enforced as of March.
Collier acknowledged that some officers may occasionally perform undercover work or assignments that require them to conceal their identity, but only those considered 650 in LAPD parlance are truly “. It is considered an “undercover investigation.”
The names of full-fledged undercover agents who work undercover with outlaw biker gangs, terrorist organizations, and drug cartels are not kept in department records and are known only to some superiors. Most change their appearance and assume fictitious identities, right down to new driver’s licenses. Some are based out of state.
Collier said most of the anonymous officers who sued the city claimed they were on covert assignments at the time of their “inadvertent release,” but did not specify the dates or duration of their assignments.
The latest filings mark a sudden change in tone for the city, which filed a lawsuit in April 2023 seeking “the return of photographs that were carelessly created to protect the lives and jobs of undercover investigators.” There is. The lawsuit was settled and is separate from the lawsuits brought by 900 officers. The City Attorney’s Office did not respond to an email Tuesday seeking further comment.
Hamid Khan, an organizer with Stop Loss Police Spy, said the city has reversed course and now says the photos do not jeopardize anyone’s safety. He is making the same argument as before.”
“But they spent a year demonizing us, demonizing the news media, and putting this target on us,” Khan said, adding that the group is working with Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass and the city Fees noted that he had received numerous threats after being named in police public comment.
When the city sued to get the photos back and stop Camacho and LAPD spying, The Times was among a coalition of news organizations that criticized the move as a brazen attack on press freedom. . The city agreed in June to settle the lawsuit and pay $300,000 in legal costs, but the lawsuit by the affected officers continues.
When contacted Tuesday, Camacho referred to his thread in the Times about the city’s “poetic justice” to They seem to be adopting the same argument that they have been making.
The Watch the Watchers site, which was conceived as a public accountability and transparency tool, has ironically become so popular among LAPD sworn and civilian employees that some within the department has come to be called the “LAPD Facebook.” Many officers who spoke to the Times said they use the site regularly, sometimes daily, to find colleagues in the vast force of 8,700 officers.
But in recent anonymous court statements, some officers claimed that releasing the photos put them at risk. One claimed he had previously worked undercover in a Mexican Mafia investigation and learned last year of a potential threat against them and their wives.
In August 2023, a suspect in a Mexican Mafia case sent a screenshot of a police officer’s “Watch the Watcher” photo to a suspected gang member and asked if he knew who the police officer was, according to the statement. That’s what it means. The suspect then located the officer’s home address. The officers said they feared for their safety as well as that of their wives, so they moved them to a hotel and had armed officers stationed outside 24 hours a day.
One officer said he suffered “extreme anxiety” after his photo was posted on the site, according to court records. They said in a statement that they were working undercover to buy guns from gang members who had disseminated their photos “with the intent to commit murder.” [them] Once you find it. ” The officer reported purchasing additional home security and instructing the spouse to take a different route home to avoid being followed.
Another officer said his ID was stolen from a former high school classmate. The person allegedly attacked photos of police officers on his Facebook and Instagram accounts, calling them fascist “pigs” and racial traitors. The officer said the account’s followers “include activists who hold extremist views and are active frequently.” [play] He played a leading role in organizing protests that turned into violence against police officers. ”
Matt McNicholas, one of several attorneys representing the affected officers, said the city suddenly insisted his clients be identified after the city’s previous claims. He said it was hypocritical.
“Now they have the exact opposite position? How do you reconcile that?” McNicholas said. “They can’t just turn around and say, ‘No harm, no filth,’ based on our lawsuit, while swearing under threat of perjury that there will be irreparable harm.”
He said even police officers who work undercover “intermittently” still face the risk of having their faces widely published online.
He said city attorneys are minimizing the threat such officers face when dealing with suspects who have a propensity for violence and are overly wary of law enforcement presence. denounced.
“Whether we like them or not, whether we defund them or not, we cannot put their lives at risk,” McNicholas said.
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