Comments@THE GUSS REPORT-For generations, the LAPD has been exposed as corrupt, dishonest and abusive. Its widely adopted motto, "To Protect and to Serve," is largely just a slogan rather than a promise kept.
There was the LAPD’s cover-up of beaten civilians during the 1951 “Bloody Christmas” scandal. In 1965, it responded with racism and violence during the CHP-triggered Watts Riot. In 1992, its group-think racism and violence triggered the Rodney King Riot. In 1994, LAPD Detective Phil Vannatter went rogue in the double homicide case against O.J. Simpson giving the jury the reasonable doubt it needed for an acquittal by admitting he had a vial of Simpson’s blood in an unsealed envelope in his car during a visit to Simpson’s home, and unable to explain how blood appeared on both sides of a sock when it was worn. There was the Rampart Scandal. For decades the LAPD ignored tips about its homicidal art detective, Stephanie Lazarus. Don’t forget the federal consent decree that the LAPD resisted so much it was extended for years. And last week Chief Michel Moore announced his intent to fire at least one of dozens of officers investigated for falsifying notes on people during traffic stops.
The truth remains a sticky problem for the LAPD and it was enabled in recent years because, until recently, the LAPD Commission was overseen by people like real estate developer Steve Soboroff, who had – and has – no qualification to sit on the Board other than being rich, white, male and connected to the city’s elected class. With former U.S. Attorney Eileen Decker recently replacing him, there is no good reason for Soboroff to remain.
That’s a quick eight-decade recap of high-profile LAPD dishonesty, for starters, to introduce today’s column.
LAPD corruption also takes the form of playing dumb in order to protect local politicians. Take for example public records requests that I filed almost half a year ago. It could not have been more precise and narrow:
“This public records request is for all records, regardless of format, including but not limited to 911 calls, in which Captain Art Sandoval was involved from 2/13/19 thru 2/15/19.
Also, I want a copy of the Computer Assisted Dispatch (CAD) on those dates, including but not limited to dispatches to 605 S Irving Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90005.
You must ensure that these records are preserved, and protected from intentional or inadvertent destruction. You must also turn off any automatic records destruction mechanisms.
I want these records emailed to me as they are located, i.e. on a rolling production basis. Please note that this is a different request from my PRA request 19-4891.”
The credit for such precision goes to my public records guru, attorney Paul Nicholas Boylan of Davis, California.
605 S. Irving Blvd is Mayor Eric Garcetti’s official residence. Computer Assisted Dispatch (CAD) records and the 911 system are far more durable than, for example, a police report. The LAPD would be in a world of hurt to explain why a CAD record might exist without accompanying records.
That may be why the LAPD, in response to these requests, first claimed “unique circumstances” prevent it from producing the records in a timely manner. Then it extended the due date not once, twice or even three times, but four times, without explanation. It can’t just say “unique circumstances.”
On September 25, 2019, the LAPD changed the due date to October 15. It missed this deadline and did not contact me again until November 27, changing the date at that time to December 27. When it missed that deadline, it changed it to January 24, 2020. On January 23, the LAPD contacted me again, saying it now changed the date to February 21.
It was at this point I told the LAPD that I would pursue a judicial remedy if it didn’t turn over all the records immediately. That prompted a phone call from an officer in its Discovery Unit (which handles public records matters) asking for more detail. How much more precise could the request have been? Now, after six months the LAPD suddenly wants more detail?
I told the officer that back on September 10 I spoke with and provided such extra detail to her colleague, Detective Kris Tu, to which she said there was no record of his having worked on the request or ever speaking with me. Funny, because here is his message from that date and we spoke extensively within minutes of his sending it and my phone records prove it.
The next day, I received another call from the Discovery Unit contradicting the call from the prior day.
My two records requests were deliberately submitted for the same date ranges in 2018 and in 2019, so it is curious that the LAPD has refused to provide any documentation for either date range.
These aren’t the hallmarks of a fair, transparent law enforcement agency. It is the evasiveness of a political syndicate with the well-exercised ability to ruin your day, year and life. It is an extension of all the LAPD corruption that listed at the outset of this column, and plenty more that could have been included.
Falsifying records is also what the LAPD irrefutably did during my legal victory against it last year, yet Internal Affairs has yet to ask me a single question about it in response to my complaint.
If the LAPD doesn’t cough up these records in their entirety this week, it may find itself on the wrong end of a public records Heimlich maneuver and forced to pay a hefty legal co-pay, as well.
(Daniel Guss, MBA, is a member of the Los Angeles Press Club, and has contributed to CityWatchLA, KFI AM-640, iHeartMedia, 790-KABC, Huffington Post, Los Angeles Daily News, Los Angeles Magazine, Movieline Magazine, Emmy Magazine, Los Angeles Business Journal, Pasadena Star News, Los Angeles Downtown News, and the Los Angeles Times in its Sports, Opinion, Entertainment sections and Sunday Magazine, among other publishers. Follow him on Twitter @TheGussReport. His opinions are his own and do not necessarily reflect the views of CityWatch.) Photo above: Photo: Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times. Prepped for CityWatch by Linda Abrams.
ublic Records Requests, LAPD corruption history
