More than a dozen Los Angeles police officers were suspended or reassigned after a woman reported that her son had been incorrectly labeled a gang member, prompting a broader inquiry into whether officers were falsifying records, the New York Times reports. The Los Angeles Police Department opened an investigation last year, when a mother in the San Fernando Valley approached a police station to tell officers about a letter she had received saying that her son, a minor, had been identified as a gang member. She told a supervisor he had been mislabeled. Such letters are required by state law to be uploaded to CalGang, a state database that law enforcement officials say helps them fight gang activity. Critics say it encourages racial profiling and criminalizes normal social interactions.
When the supervisor reviewed body camera footage and car recordings, they did not match the documentation completed by an officer. The investigation grew to encompass more than a dozen officers in the elite metro division who were suspected of misrepresenting information in field interview cards, the Police Department said. Los Angeles Police Chief Michel Moore said, “An officer’s integrity must be absolute. There is no place in the department for any individual who would purposely falsify information on a department report.” Sean Garcia-Leys of the Urban Peace Institute said he had dozens of clients over the past two years who had been wrongly added to CalGang.