Los Angeles police accidentally release photos of undercover officers to watchdog website

A row of police officers line up toward the camera; with sun light shining only on a section of them.
Members of the 5-10 Los Angeles Police Department recruit class line up for graduation at the LAPD training academy in Elysian Park in Los Angeles in 2010. The Los Angeles Police Department accidentally released the names and photos of numerous undercover officers to a watchdog group that posted them on its website on Friday.(Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times)

BY LIBOR JANY, RICHARD WINTON
MARCH 21, 2023 5 AM PT

In a still-unfolding drama that has reached its top ranks, the Los Angeles Police Department accidentally released the names and photos of numerous undercover officers to a watchdog group that posted them on its website.

The controversy began late last week when the Stop LAPD Spying Coalition launched a searchable online database — called Watch the Watchers — of more than 9,300 city police officers’ photos, complete with their names, ethnicity, rank, date of hire, division/bureau and badge numbers. The group called the site the first of its kind in the country.

Stop LAPD Spying officials said they believe police officers are not entitled to the same expectation of privacy as other residents because of their status as civil servants. They said in an interview about the site that what they published was obtained through a public records request by a civilian journalist and turned over by the LAPD.

Department leaders said over the weekend that the release of pictures of officers working in an undercover capacity was inadvertent, and they have launched an internal investigation to determine how the mistake occurred.

[...]