The union representing rank-and-file Los Angeles Police Department officers is suing Chief Michel Moore and the city to demand they take action to reclaim photos of potentially hundreds of undercover officers whose images were mistakenly released as part of a public records request earlier this month.
The Los Angeles Police Protective League is seeking to force the city to request a judge intervene in the publication of the photos in order to protect the identities of undercover officers and others who work sensitive assignments, according to the lawsuit filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court on Tuesday, March 28.
Images of about 9,300 sworn LAPD officers — nearly every cop on the force as of last summer — had their photos released online after an independent journalist sued the city to hand them over as public records. The photos were all published in a searchable database called “Watch the Watchers,” maintained by the Stop LAPD Spying Coalition, a group of civil rights advocates staunchly opposed to any expansion of LAPD’s surveillance powers.
While information about police officers is broadly covered under the California Public Records Act, which requires government agencies to hand over that information to journalists and the public, the identities of undercover officers who might face danger because of their work are generally protected under state law.
But Moore admitted the department mistakenly included the photos of the undercover officers when it released them last September. The union says because of that error, an unknown number of undercover investigations are now at risk of falling apart.
“It’s unprecedented,” said Robert Rico, LAPPL general counsel. “This is a historic act of malfeasance by the department.”
While the union has not been able to say exactly how many officers there are whose photos they want taken down, Rico said he’d spoken to dozens of undercover detectives worried their identities being leaked will…
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