According to the Los Angeles Times, the names and pictures of undercover cops were given to a technology watchdog group, which then posted them online. As a result, the Los Angeles police chief and the department’s director of constitutional policing are now under investigation.
In a police commission hearing on Tuesday, LAPD Chief Michel Moore expressed his “deep apologies” to the undercover officers who had not been informed in advance of the reveal.
After a public records request by a citizen journalist, the technology watchdog group Stop LAPD Spying Coalition published more than 9,300 officers’ profiles and images on Friday in a searchable internet database, according to The Times. Exactly how many individuals were undercover was not immediately apparent.
The coalition claims the database should be used for “countersurveillance,” not police intelligence gathering.
The group stated, “You may use it to identify officers harming your neighborhood.” “Police operate in secret while having access to a wealth of information about each of us.”
Although the city attorney’s office decided the agency was legally compelled to turn them over by California’s public records legislation, the department’s release of the identities and images of the undercover officers was unintentional, according to the Times.
Moore said on Tuesday, “We will look to what procedures or additional steps can be taken to preserve the personal identifiers of our membership.”
The Los Angeles Police Protective League, the union representing rank-and-file officers, filed a misconduct complaint against Moore and Liz Rhodes on Monday, prompting the department’s inspector general to investigate their actions.
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