The city of LA had sued a freelance reporter who published the photos of all LAPD officers, and it’ll cost taxpayers over $300,000. Investigative Reporter Eric Leonard reports for the NBC4 News at 4 p.m. on Thursday, Dec. 5, 2024.
A judge this week signed a decision to close another of the lawsuits filed over the public disclosure of photos of thousands of Los Angeles Police Department officers, likely ending a year-long court fight for the freelance journalist who first obtained the pictures through a public records request and then became the target of litigation.
"This was a learning experience for me," said reporter Ben Camacho. "I was very lucky to have access to a relentless legal team that defended this all the way to the end."
The LA City Attorney's Office unsuccessfully sued Camacho and the Stop LAPD Spying coalition after the photos were published in a searchable online database, and demanded the removal of the photos from public view and the return of the digital files.
A final dismissal in that case was filed Oct. 4, and a related suit filed by dozens of officers who said they worked in undercover roles and were endangered by the photo release and publication, effectively ended Dec. 4.
Get top local stories in Southern California delivered to you every morning. >Sign up for NBC LA's News Headlines newsletter.
The City Attorney's Office did not immediately respond to an inquiry about the judge's decision.
Camacho first requested in 2021 a roster of LAPD officers and their ID photographs through the California Public Records Act and obtained the files a year later.
"What I'm doing was necessary for the community because the community needed to have radical transparency in their police department," Camacho explained as the reason for his request.
The city has to pay $300,000 to cover Camacho's legal expenses, and it could be responsible for additional legal fees from the related lawsuits.
Last month, the city acknowledged in a court filing that many of the officers shown in the released photos were not -- and had not -- worked in true undercover assignments, roles that would necessitate the removal of their names and identifying information from public disclosure.
The city, the LAPD and the officers' union initially complained undercover officers were exposed by the city's release of the images.
"There is only one class of undercover officers at the LAPD," the City Attorney's Office wrote in a filing Nov. 8, confirming that none of those officers' photos or information was released and arguing that none of some 900 officers who sued the city were truly undercover officers.
City records obtained by NBCLA in 2023 showed that the City Attorney's Office had promised to remove the profiles of undercover officers before producing the records.
Camacho said Thursday that he was glad the city finally clarified that confidential profiles were never part of the photos released to him, although it took a lengthy and expensive legal fight to reach that statement.
"Once the city was facing millions of dollars in legal expenses, they finally told the truth," Camacho said.
