The UCI Intellectual Property, Arts, and Technology Clinic’s Press Freedom Project represents journalist Ben Camacho. Professor Susan Seager, who directs the Press Freedom Project, issued this statement on behalf of Mr. Camacho in response to a lawsuit filed this week by the City of Los Angeles:
Ben Camacho is a visual journalist and sought these photographs for his reporting and documentary filmmaking about police officers. The City Attorney’s Office voluntarily agreed to give Ben headshots of LAPD officers to settle his Public Records Act lawsuit.
The City Attorney’s Office hand-delivered the photos to Ben on or about September 16, 2022 along with a letter stating that “images of officers working in an undercover capacity as of the time the pictures were downloaded (end of July 2022) are not included.” The disclosure was not “inadvertent” or a “mistake.” The City purposely gave Ben the photos, minus undercover officers, and now is trying to rewrite history by claiming it wishes it had withheld photos of both undercover officers and officers who “serve in sensitive assignments.” This is an impossibly broad category of officers that could include just about any officer’s work at some point during their career.
Ben has lawfully obtained these photos from the City Attorney’s Office. Any court order requiring Ben to give these photos back and banning Ben from publishing these photographs would be a prior restraint that would violate the First Amendment.
The photos or links to the photos have already been published on several websites, including websites in New Zealand and Iceland. This means the photos are now in the public domain. Ordering Ben to give back his copy of the photos will not remove those photos from the Internet.
Los Angeles does not have a secret police force. Members of the public and journalists have a First Amendment right to photograph police officers in public. If a member of the public photographed plain-clothes officers trying to blend in with protesters in the street, could a court issue an order blocking the photographer from publishing the photograph because the officer wasn’t wearing a uniform? The answer is no.
If the LAPD is so worried about the danger of public photographs of its officers, why does the LAPD post photos of its officers on the Internet and social media? Why do individual officers post photos of themselves on social media?
Ben will fight the City’s effort to censor his journalism about police, which is a matter of paramount public concern.
About the Press Freedom Project
The Press Freedom Project is an award-winning program of the Intellectual Property, Arts, and Technology Clinic at the University of California, Irvine, School of Law. The program teaches law students practical legal skills by pairing them with independent journalists and government watchdog groups and providing these clients with free legal services.