We were still reeling from the discovery of highly sensitive records carelessly stored in a back hallway at the Northeast Police Station when we learned of an even more serious breach at the Southwest Division.

Incredibly, the material “stored” in Southwest’s parking structure includes a massive number of documents that should be under lock and key in a high-security facility. The documents include:

The parking area where the boxes of records are stored is accessible to city employees and even some visitors. A “Do Not Remove” sign and crime scene tape hardly qualify as appropriate security for such sensitive information! The LAPD’s negligent management of this confidential material leaves officers, and now crime victims, exposed.

Each time the LAPPL has brought these types of security breaches to the Department’s attention, we have received unsatisfactory responses and inadequate remedial action.

We demand LAPD meet at least the same standard of protection that government requires of private companies for the storing of information – and for rectifying the situation, when security breaches do occur.

As we said in 2007 when we exposed confidential files in the hallway of Parker Center and again this week, these shocking discoveries are not isolated cases. They represent a Department that has failed to act or put real safeguards in place for the handling and storing of confidential information. This is why protecting officers’ and the public’s privacy will continue to be a top priority of the League.