Despite convincing state lawmakers last week that permitting public access to police disciplinary files would endanger lives, law enforcement advocacy groups have been unable to identify a single case in which an officer actually had been harmed because of the release of such information.
Police officers from all over California lined up to warn a key Assembly committee that releasing the names of those accused of misconduct would put their lives in jeopardy.
"Keep our families safe," speaker after speaker said.
The argument resonated with lawmakers and essentially killed a bill that would have provided access to disciplinary records, such as when officers use excessive force, lie in court or make racial slurs.
Assemblyman Jose Solorio (D-Santa Ana), the Public Safety Committee chairman, said he was convinced that identifying officers involved in misconduct was "a real threat" to their safety. In an interview with The Times, he said he had been told of "numerous examples" where the release of an officer's identity in a discipline case directly led to officers and their families being harmed.
When asked to cite one such case, however, Solorio could not.
"It's one of the things where you hear so many you can't remember any," he said as he hurried to get off the phone.
Solorio wasn't alone.
The same police unions that raised the safety issue also were unable to identify a case in which the release of such information was used by a criminal or disgruntled citizen to hunt down, confront or hurt an officer or his loved ones.
First Amendment and government accountability advocates said they were stunned that a bill aimed at increasing the public's right to know about misbehaving cops was turned into an argument for police safety.
"It's really an effective tactic," said Thomas W. Newton, general counsel for the California Newspaper Publishers Assn. "When you don't have good arguments on the policy, you have to resort to fear, intimidation and in this case threats."
The bill, which was sponsored by Senate Majority Leader Gloria Romero (D-Los Angeles), was aimed at overturning Copley Press Inc. vs. San Diego County Superior Court -- a state Supreme Court ruling last year that imposed restrictions on the release of police officer personnel information.
After the court's ruling, the Los Angeles Police Department changed its rules to prohibit access to information from disciplinary board meetings and other records that had been publicly available for decades.
