The LAPD said Tuesday it had, “stood down,” the gang enforcement unit at the 77th Street Division in South Los Angeles, while it investigates whether some officers intentionally switched-off or failed to activate body worn video cameras during stops and other police work.
“We take this very, very seriously,” said Assistant Chief Scott Harrelson in response to a question from Police Commissioner Jeff Skobin about NBC4 Investigates’ report last week that some of the unit’s officers had been removed from field duty.
“There is a zero tolerance policy for violations of our body worn and in-car video policy,” Harrelson said.
According to several law enforcement sources familiar with the inquiry 10 of the gang unit’s officers have been directed to remain inside the police station during their shifts and several others have been reassigned while internal affairs detectives determine what happened.
“I think having another instance of a gang unit potentially doing undocumented stops is unacceptable,” said Commission president Rasha Gerges Shields, referring to an investigation in 2023 of the gang detail at the LAPD’s Mission Area station in the north San Fernando Valley.
“Given the fact that this is not the first time this has happened, and on the heels of what happened in the Mission Division, I worry that this isn’t just a, ‘we don’t know what the policy is,'” she said, raising concerns about the Department’s initial plan to provide refresher training on body worn video policies at roll call meetings.
The sources told NBC4 Investigates the officers in 77th Division were suspected of deliberately concealing some stops, and failed to document them on video or in other reports, raising concerns about what the officers were doing — that they didn’t want supervisors to see, or allow random video reviews to reveal.
“Not everyone in the unit,” was being looked-at, said one source familiar with the internal investigation, and said the inquiry was examining the body worn video camera use, ‘among other issues.’
The LAPD’s body worn video policy was established in 2015 and is taught during academy training.
It says officers, “shall activate their BWV devices prior to initiating any investigative or enforcement activity involving a member of the public,” including during vehicle and pedestrian stops, and during calls for service.
Officers assigned to the LAPD’s gang enforcement details generally do not respond to radio calls, instead, they’re tasked with patrolling specific areas and making observational stops and arrests in order to collect information about suspected gang members, and possibly interrupt plans for violence before they occur, according to LAPD documentation.
The resolution of the Mission Division gang unit investigation was never shared publicly, but the LAPD’s disciplinary disclosures suggested two of the accused officers resigned instead of facing termination.
In the Department’s January disclosure two entries described officers assigned to, “specialized enforcement,” which includes gang enforcement details, resigning after being accused of racial profiling, intentionally failing to activate body worn and in-car video, and concealing the detention of individuals.
One of the two officers was also accused of being a participant in a law enforcement gang, pointing a firearm at a person without cause, and searching a vehicle without cause.