Los Angeles Undermines Freedom of Information In Suit Over Police Photos
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 publication of the police photos. LAPPL’s suit against the city demanded that the city take legal action “to prevent further public disclosure of the undercover officers’ photographs” because the photos provided to Camacho allegedly include undercover officers. (LAPPL’s communications agency did not respond to a request for comment.)
In response to being sued by the police labor union, the city attorney’s office filed its first lawsuit against Camacho and the SLSC last April. The city’s suit alleges that, although it objected to providing photos of undercover officers, it nevertheless “inadvertently” did so. For redress, the city’s suit demands the return of the original flash drive provided to Camacho, the destruction of all physical and electronic copies of the police photos, and an injunction preventing Camacho and the SLSC from further distr
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