Southern California city to destroy more than 100 police shooting records before new law goes into effect in 2019 to allow public access
Mayor James T. Butts Jr. of Inglewood, California, says allegations this is ‘an intent to beat the clock is ridiculous’
The city made the decision to shred the records at a City Council meeting earlier this month
The decision to the destroy records was made ahead of a new state law going into effect on January 1
The new law would makes public records of officer-involved shootings, major uses of force, and confirmed cases of sexual assault and lying while on duty
DAILYMAIL.COM
28 December 2018
A Southern California mayor is defending his city’s decision to destroy old police shooting and internal investigation records.
The city of Inglewood made the decision to shred the records at a City Council meeting earlier this month, according to a report by the Los Angeles Times.
The move came ahead of the implementation of a new state law that could allow the public to access those records for the first time.
The law, which goes into effect January 1, makes public internal investigations of officer-involved shootings, other major uses of force, and confirmed cases of sexual assault and lying while on duty.
‘This premise that there was an intent to beat the clock is ridiculous,’ said Butts, a former Santa Monica police chief.
He said city officials would have nothing to fear from the records approved for destruction because some of them date as far back as 1991.
‘How would they be embarrassing to me?’ said Butts, who became part of city government when he was elected mayor in 2011. ‘I wasn’t even here for those records. The records are what they are.’
Civil liberties advocates who pushed for the new law said they were troubled by Inglewood’s decision.
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