The LAPD has quietly stopped putting many public records online
The LAPD quietly pulled thousands of public records offline starting last April, turning transparency into a black hole, according to a UCLA professor tracking the changes.
The Los Angeles Police Department has stopped posting large categories of public records to the city's transparency website, effectively sealing off routine access to information that Angelenos once could pull up in seconds.
Records began vanishing from the LAPD section of the site in April, according to a UCLA professor who monitors the portal. What started as spotty gaps has become systematic: entire classes of documents no longer appear online, making the department what the professor calls a "black hole of information."
This quiet retreat matters because the website was one of the few straightforward avenues for journalists, researchers, and residents to obtain use-of-force reports, complaint summaries, and other basic accountability data without filing formal requests. Now those paths are blocked by default.
The timing is conspicuous. Los Angeles has spent years touting its commitment to police reform and open government; the portal itself was promoted as proof that the city had moved past the days of stonewalling. Yet the department's decision to stop uploading material suggests the opposite impulse: convenience and control have quietly replaced disclosure.
City officials have offered no public explanation for the policy shift. The UCLA professor's documentation remains the only detailed accounting of what has disappeared and when. Without it, most residents would never notice that records they once relied on have simply stopped appearing.
The real test is whether this digital withdrawal signals a broader return to the pre-reform era, when public information flowed only through cumbersome, slow-moving channels that favor insiders. The black hole is already here; the question is how long the rest of Los Angeles will tolerate operating in the dark.
Original reporting: LA Times.
Original reporting: LA Times, California.
More in California
- UC Berkeley Lab Proposes New Civic Framework for California’s Next Governor
A research-driven agenda calls for institutionalizing 'co-governance' to address low public trust and lack of resident influence in state decision-making.
- Five Tax Measures on California’s Ballot Aim to Reshape State Finances
Propositions 3, 40–43 would alter income, wealth and local taxation rules—marking the highest number of tax measures on a general election ballot since 1994.
- Catalina Helicopter Crash Highlights Risks of Island Medevac Flights
A medical evacuation chopper carrying Catalina Romero, pilot, and nurse Jessica Devries crashed into the ocean shortly after takeoff, killing all three; federal investigators are assessing causes including night flying, spatial disorientation, and the island’s challenging Pebbly Beach heliport.