Watch The Watchers

A Project by the stop lapd spying coalition

LAPD IS DELETING PERSONNEL ROSTERS

LAPD has for years published rosters listing what appears to be all (or at least all but a few) of its personnel, both sworn and civilian, along with detailed information about each officer such as rank, division assignment, sex, ethnicity, biweekly salary, date of hire, and name of supervisor. You can find these rosters all over the internet, either in the raw form in which LAPD made it public or repackaged in community-generated databases. For years, these rosters also were available for public download from a website run by the City of Los Angeles where LAPD publishes public records in response to people’s requests.

After we launched watchthewatchers.net, police and politicians started clamoring that our publication of not only photographs but also this roster information was invasive and dangerous. Then, a day or two after the City of Los Angeles filed a lawsuit demanding we censor our publication of records that they first published, we observed either LAPD or the City Attorney starting to quietly delete those rosters from the city’s official public records website. Some of these now-deleted rosters had been downloadable and searchable on the city's website for three or four years.

A Public Service

We are not aware of any other instance where LAPD or any other public agency has deleted public records in this way. So, as a public service and to ensure transparency about city officials attempting to censor public records from public circulation, we created this page to track rosters that LAPD made public in recent years. For each example listed below, the city's public records website includes a correspondence timeline showing that LAPD published these rosters, but the files themselves have been removed.

The deletion of these public records illustrates the desperate lengths that city officials are going to retroactively hide public records that they themselves made public. The city is attempting to reinvent terms like "undercover" and usher a new era of police secrecy.

Deleted LAPD Rosters

On or around January 20, 2019, LAPD made public a roster of 10,033 sworn LAPD personnel listing their full names, LAPD serial number, LAPD rank, LAPD division, sex, and ethnicity. This roster was available for the public to download on the city's public records website up until sometime on the week of April 10, 2023, when it appears to have been deleted. You can now download this roster here or from the Internet Archive.

On or around July 17, 2020, LAPD made public a roster of 9,952 sworn LAPD personnel listing their full names, LAPD serial numbers, LAPD rank, sex, and ethnicity. This roster was available for the public to download on the city's public records website up until sometime on the week of April 10, 2023, when it appears to have been deleted. You can now download this roster here.

On or around January 14, 2021, LAPD made public a roster of 13,378 both sworn and civilian LAPD personnel listing their full names, LAPD serial number, LAPD rank or title, sex, and ethnicity. This roster was available for the public to download on the city's public records website up until sometime on the week of April 10, 2023, when it appears to have been deleted. You can now download this roster here.

On or around January 25, 2022, LAPD made public a roster of 9,494 sworn LAPD personnel listing their full names, LAPD serial number, LAPD rank, LAPD division, gender, ethnicity, and year of hire. This roster was available for the public to download on the city’s public records website until approximately April 7, 2023, when LAPD deleted it. You can now download this roster here.

On or around April 6, 2022, LAPD made public a roster of 9,496 sworn LAPD personnel listing their full names, LAPD serial number, LAPD rank, and LAPD division. This roster was available for the public to download on the city's public records website up until sometime on the week of April 10, 2023, when it appears to have been deleted. You can now download this roster here.

On or around April 25, 2022, LAPD made public a roster of 9,303 sworn LAPD personnel listing their full names, LAPD serial number, LAPD rank, LAPD division, exact LAPD hire date, and full name of LAPD supervisor. This roster was available for the public to download on the city's public records website up until sometime on the week of April 10, 2023, when it appears to have been deleted. You can now download this roster here.

On or around May 3, 2022, LAPD made public a roster of 9,317 sworn LAPD personnel listing their full names, LAPD serial number, LAPD rank, biweekly salary, and LAPD entry date. This roster was available for the public to download on the city's public records website up until sometime on the week of April 10, 2023, when it appears to have been deleted. You can now download this roster here.

On or around August 22, 2022, LAPD made public a roster of 9,262 sworn LAPD personnel listing their full names, LAPD serial number, LAPD rank, LAPD division, gender, and ethnicity. This roster was available for the public to download on the city's public records website up until sometime on the week of April 10, 2023, when it appears to have been deleted. You can now download this roster here.

On or around January 13, 2023, LAPD made public a roster of 9,165 sworn LAPD personnel listing their full names, LAPD serial number, LAPD rank, LAPD division, gender, ethnicity, and year of hire. This roster was available for the public to download on the city’s public records website until approximately April 7, 2023, when LAPD deleted it. You can now download this roster here.

The list on this page is not exhaustive

These are just examples we found by searching “roster” on the city’s public records website (select “Police Department (LAPD)” under Department and press “Apply filters”). You might be able to find more examples.