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Anti-Surveillance Group Sues LAPD And City For Refusing To Disclose Locations Of Security Cameras At Echo Park Lake
Echo Park Lake.
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Libby Denkmann/LAist
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The Stop LAPD Spying Coalition is suing the Los Angeles Police Department and the city after they refused to reveal the locations of security cameras at Echo Park Lake.
Surveillance cameras were installed at the park around spring and early summer of last year when the park reopened, said Hamid Khan, an organizer with the anti-surveillance group. The park had been fenced off after the city’s March 2021 eviction of the unhoused community that had been living there.
Khan says his group tried to get records on where the cameras are located, but police have refused to hand them over.
"They started claiming that the disclosure of a location of even one of those cameras will compromise law enforcement, which is really an unprecedented legal argument to say that no state agency is ever required to disclose the locations," he said.
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Khan maintained the LAPD is setting an "extremely dangerous precedent."
"Now they're setting it up that they would never have to disclose the location of any surveillance equipment, ever," he said.
In an emailed statement, an LAPD spokesperson said "the department cannot comment on open litigation."
The City Attorney's office said it will review the complaint.
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