By Christopher Buchanan
Los Angeles Times
INGLEWOOD, Calif. — The Inglewood Police Department “systematically” violated state public records laws by disregarding requests for documents related to police misconduct, including fatal shootings, and must now post the information on its website, a judge has ruled.
In 2021, the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California sued the department, alleging that it had not produced a single document in response to public records requests made nearly three years before.
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The records the ACLU requested in 2019 included those related to fatal shootings by police officers, dishonesty by officers and sexual assaults involving officers.
The ACLU’s public records requests followed a state law, Senate Bill 1421, enacted the previous year that made those types of records publicly available for the first time.
In an order issued Thursday, Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Gary Tanaka granted the ACLU’s motion for summary judgment, writing that the Inglewood Police Department demonstrated “a pattern and practice of failing to comply with their statutory obligations” under state public records laws.
In December 2018, shortly before SB 1421 was to take effect, the Inglewood City Council passed a law allowing the Police Department — which for years was beset by allegations of excessive force, poor officer training and lack of transparency — to shred more than 100 police shooting and other internal investigation records.
“This premise that there was an intent to beat the clock is ridiculous,” Inglewood Mayor James Butts said at the time.
On Monday, the ACLU celebrated its victory.
“This ruling is a rebuke of Inglewood’s sustained, years-long attempt to deny the public rightful access to these records and shroud in secrecy egregious police misconduct and uses of force,” Tiffany Bailey , senior staff attorney and the deputy project director of criminal justice and police practices at the ACLU Foundation of Southern California, said in a statement.
Bailey cited the fatal shootings of Kisha Michael and Marquintan Sandlin, who were gunned down by Inglewood police officers while sitting in their car in 2016.
“It is also a powerful victory for families like those of Ms. Kisha Michael who have lost loved ones at the hands of the Inglewood Police Department and who will finally learn the details of their deaths, something that was once unlawfully denied to them,” Bailey said.
Butts did not immediately comment. Nor did a spokesperson for the Police Department or an attorney representing the city in the ACLU lawsuit.
This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
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