California Attorney General Xavier Becerra warned two reporters that they illegally possess a list of convicted state law enforcement officers over the last ten years. The reporters obtained the list, in an error says Becerra, in response to public records requests. The reporters are researching the list to ensure accuracy before publication. (The San Jose Mercury News, February 26, 2019, by Robert Lewis and Jason Paladino of the UC Berkeley Investigative Reporting Program)
Tim Cushing of techdirt, February 27, 2019, writes that the offenses the officers committed include possession of child porn, domestic violence and embezzlement, crimes so serious that the public has the right to know about them. “That they’ve [the offenses] been hidden so long is an indictment of California’s law enforcement agencies,” writes Cushing, “and the politicians who worked so tirelessly to ensure their misdeeds remained hidden. The AG stepping [up] to tell journalists they can’t have a document they already have is the wrong kind of audacious. Taxpayers pay the salaries of sworn police officers. They have a right to know how their money is being spent and whether that money is being used to pay the salaries of officers who have broken the law.”
The Mercury News criticizes Becerra for taking politically expedient positions contrary to the interests of the public. One such position is his threat to reporters over the publication of the list of police abuses. The new law requiring transparency of police personnel records has already netted important revelations. The editorial concludes, “Becerra must decide whether he wants to rid the state’s police departments of bad cops, or enable them. And he must decide whether he will run his department with the integrity it deserves, or continue pandering to special interests.” (The San Jose Mercury News, February 28, 2019, by Mercury News and East Bay Times Editorial Boards)
Tony Biasotti in the Columbia Journalism Review, March 4, 2019, writes that Becerra’s claims are faulty and his threat of prosecution for possessing the records have no foundation in California law. Reporters are shielded from the provision of a state law making it misdemeanor to possess records from the state criminal records database.
For other related FAC coverage on the issue, click here, here and here.