The chief of the Los Angeles Police Department said investigations involving undercover officers have been largely unaffected despite the accidental release last month of photos identifying those officers as members of law enforcement.
LAPD checked with its investigative units to determine whether undercover officers would have to be moved into new roles or off their cases entirely, Chief Michel Moore told the city’s Police Commission on Tuesday, April 11.
Moore said the department was working “to evaluate investigations in which (undercover officers) are involved” and whether there “needs to be any adjustments in terms of withdrawing them from those investigations” after their photos were published online in mid-March.
In most cases, the chief said, the department’s undercover investigations would continue.
“The vast majority of our investigations have been unimpacted,” Moore said to the commission. Most of LAPD’s “undercover operators are comfortable with their role.”
It was not clear Tuesday whether there were any investigations that had to be dropped or dramatically changed.
The apparent lack of effects on criminal investigations from the release of the photos comes despite weeks of hand-wringing from the city and LAPD over the fallout of their bungled response to a records request asking for the names, photos and other identifying information of the department’s entire roster of sworn officers.
LAPD warned officers on Saturday, March 18 that their photos had all been released, regardless of any possible undercover work they were doing, when the department mistakenly handed over the photos for every officer they had on record at the time to an independent journalist who asked for the information as part of a California Public Records Act request.
In a 2021 letter from City Attorney Mike Feuer’s office obtained by the journalist, Ben Camacho, the city told LAPD it would have to comply with the request and turn over as many photos…
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