The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday directed its attorneys to draft an ordinance that would require the Sheriff’s Department to publish the names of deputies who open fire while on duty within 48 hours of a shooting.
The move comes after a push by relatives of people shot by deputies and by the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California along with reporting by The Times that revealed that the Sheriff’s Department’s practice of withholding the names is at odds with a 2014 California Supreme Court ruling that generally requires such disclosures be made.
The Times found the Sheriff’s Department is an outlier among some of California’s largest law enforcement agencies, which readily make the names of officers and deputies public following shootings.
“I’ve heard from dozens of family members, and as they talk about their experience, they are reasonable, rational people in pain who want basic information,” said Supervisor Holly Mitchell, who co-wrote the motion with Supervisor Hilda Solis. It was approved unanimously by the board. “They want information that they would have access to if the person who murdered their child was not a member of law enforcement.”
Read the full story on LATimes.com.