These journalists have a list of criminal cops. California is trying to keep it secret.
In this May 3, 2017 file photo, California Attorney Gen. Xavier Becerra speaks in Sacramento, Calif
Two California journalists requested and were given data on police officers’ arrests and convictions over the past 10 years. What they found was surprising: domestic abuse, child molestation — even murder. They were given these documents through a public records request, something journalists exercise frequently.
But California Attorney General Xavier Becerra says it was a mistake, and they never should have received it in the first place. Becerra — whose office was responsible for maintaining the information — said the center that distributed it was not authorized to do so. He wants the Investigative Reporting Program at the University of California at Berkeley, and its two journalists, to destroy the files and refrain from publishing them. Not doing so, Becerra claimed, would be against the law.
But the Berkeley journalists say they’re on solid legal footing and are standing their ground.
The Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training, a California accrediting body, determines which officers are qualified to be hired or retained by state law enforcement. It receives criminal system data from the Justice Department to assist in setting eligibility standards and maintains many agencies’ records for police officers who have been convicted of a crime.
On Dec. 6, reporter Robert Lewis put in a public records request with the commission for a list of officers convicted of a crime. Lewis said his reporting partner, Jason Paladino, sent in a related request roughly around the same time. Soon thereafter, Lewis received an email acknowledging receipt of the request. A few weeks later, a second message requested an extension to compile the relevant records.
On Jan. 8, both men received two files containing a spreadsheet with 12,000 names. It included officers and applicants convicted of a crime, but as Lewis said, it also “included current and former peace officers and applicants, and individuals who applied and went through part of the process and then got rejected.”
It’s unclear how or why Becerra’s office became aware of the commission’s accidental disclosure to the journalists. According to Lewis, he tried several times to reach an official from the attorney general’s office with questions about the data but was met only with silence.
Three weeks later, when the office had learned what had happened, it sent a letter to Lewis and Paladino, putting them on notice: They had “inadvertently” been given confidential criminal history information and were breaking the law by “possessing” the spreadsheet. The attorney general requested that they refrain from publishing the data and destroy the document. He said the office could pursue legal action if they chose not to follow the requests.
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