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Los Angeles cops are struggling in the wake of the mass release of information on thousands of officers, including hundreds who work undercover, which included their names, ethnicities, assignments and photographs.
The information went out in response to a public records request, however, according to the police union, photos of undercover officers should not have been included with the material.
"It's dicey, very dangerous," said Betsy Brantner Smith, a longtime police sergeant and the spokesperson for the National Police Association. "The photograph part of it is very concerning."
Separately, with the county prosecutor increasingly going after police accused of bad behavior, identifying information on those officers is being made public in press releases and court filings. However, experts tell Fox News Digital, there are ways to minimize your publicly accessible footprint online.
Attorney Matthew McNicholas announces the filing of a lawsuit against the City of Los Angeles and the Los Angeles Police Department, Tuesday, April 4, 2023, in Los Angeles, for wrongly releasing the identities of LAPD undercover officers. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)
The Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office has for years included dates of birth, along with suspects’ names, in his press releases, and a spokesperson for DA George Gascon told Fox News Digital that the practice has been in place long before he took office.
"Some undercovers don’t want to be reassigned. They don’t want to be put in safe positions. It’s something that was no fault of our own. We did nothing wrong."
"The Los Angeles County District Attorney's office has maintained a protocol of including a defendant’s DOB in news releases for the last two decades in order to specifically identify the appropriate person," Gascon's office said in a statement. "Additionally, when a complaint is filed, the DOB is on the document and the document is a part of the public record."
Experts say it's an unnecessary inclusion that puts the safety of officers and their families in jeopardy.
Los Angeles Police Department officers march in formation on Jan. 20, 2021. (iStock)
"There’s no reason to put these police officers' birthdates in a press release," Brantner Smith told Fox News Digital. "There’s really no reason to put anybody’s birthdate in a press release… You can say, Joe Smith, age 46. You don’t have to put their birthday."
Protecting yourself
There are also services for police officers (and for the public) to minimize the amount of personal information that can be uncovered online with their name and date of birth.
One of the impacted undercover LAPD officers, who asked to remain anonymous, told Fox News Digital he had already been subscribing to privacy software for years by the time the city released his name, photo and other details.
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Fire damage at the Southwest Community Police Station after an arson attack in Los Angeles on April 7, 2023. (LAPD Southwest via AP)
"I'm not speaking for all of us, but when we accept these positions we know there are dangers," he said. "The least we expect is for our department not to blast our information out there."
Pete James, the founder of OfficerPrivacy.com, which the undercover officer has been using, said his software can help users remove unwanted personal information that has been compiled on the internet without their consent. While he spent his career in law enforcement and founded his company with police in mind, he said about half of his clients work in other fields.
From left, Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascon, Los Angeles County Supervisor Janice Hahn, Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna, Monterey Park Police Chief Steve Wiese and LAPD Chief Michel Moore take part in a press conference in downtown Los Angeles. (Mel Melcon/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)
"You don’t want your work following you home," he told Fox News Digital. "So when you get home, and you're with your family and your kids, you don’t want the criminals and the thugs and the people you’ve been dealing with at work to know where you live, and where your spouse is."
But armed with a name, date of birth and hometown, anyone on the internet can dig up that information unless you take steps to suppress it with his software, other programs like it or by manually going to each database and requesting to be removed, he said.
"These connections are made by online profiles without your permission," he said. "The way you break that connection is by removing yourself from these people search sites."
LAPD Chief Michel Moore talks about the 2022 end-of-year homicide report during a news conference at the Los Angeles Police Headquarters, March 28, 2023. (Hans Gutknecht/MediaNews Group/Los Angeles Daily News via Getty Images)
That's what his company does, but he also recommends that members of law enforcement be extremely mindful about what kind of personal information they post online and on social media – and what their family members share as well.
Fallout in Los Angeles
The public records incident kicked off at least two potential lawsuits – one against a website that turned the release into a searchable database and another against the city on behalf of 300 undercover officers alleging negligence.
"I would think that police officers in Los Angeles and L.A. County have a lot to worry about in general; why add this additional layer of concern?" Brantner Smith asked. "There is no logical reason for it."
Information on more than 9,000 Los Angeles Police Department officers was released through public records, including the photos of more than 300 undercover officers that they say should have been exempt from disclosure. (iStock)
She said the privacy issue impacts not only officers but also their families.
"What they do is they find out where their kids go to school, perhaps where their spouse works, vehicle descriptions – and it gets frightening for the personnel involved," she said.
As a police trainer, she even urges officers now to set up a plan in advance on how to react, and where their families should go, if they are involved in a critical incident.
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"It’s a huge risk because these officers’ private information is now public," said James, founder of the privacy firm. "Officers all over the country are getting harassed and doxxed, and when an officer’s private information is exposed on the internet it exposed them and their families at risk. This should never happen."
He keeps a list of cases that he says illustrate the problem – ranging from vandalism at officers' homes to violent attacks, including the 2014 shooting of a Philadelphia officer in his own driveway by a masked gunman.
Fox News’ Brie Stimson contributed to this report.
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