Last week, Knock LA journalist Ben Camacho wasby the City of Los Angeles alongside an activist organization and multiple unnamed “Does,” to prevent them from publishing the names on a roster of Los Angeles Police Department officers.
That request was partially rejected in January 2022, with the city claiming it only possessed the film negatives of each officer’s photo and it would have been “unduly cumbersome” to find and produce each one, according to a record response reviewed by The Daily Beast. —after it asked him for them. The group used the photos to build the website “Watch the Watchers,” which allows anyone to search an LAPD officer by their name or badge number and see their photo.
“I think it’s really problematic that the city would bring this type of lawsuit,” she said. “There’s no greater threat to free expression than government suppression.”