11 ms·

Watch the Watchers: LAPD officer database

191 points by Overtonwindow 4y ago

chaps 4y ago
Super curious why so many of the photos are missing. Something tells me LAPD's going to scrutinize the release of their photos going forward after that release. If you try to request photos of police in Chicago, they claim to have some wild esoteric process to get the photo such that if you request any more than 5 photos, they'll deny the request it unduly burdensome because of the way to access those photos. It's... doubtful.. that that's actually the case since their badge system has photos and they just need to pull from there, but... it's tricky is all I'll say.
- RajT88 4y ago
  Chicago is a wild case. I have a buddy on the south side who is part of a number of local political action groups which meet at local churches and are organized by alderman. The city is run by the mob. If people try to pull the curtain aside to expose it, they disappear. Yeah yeah, hearsay. But this is a friend of mine I trust being told directly by alderman. I have wondered for a while why Lightfoot has taken positions on issues diametrically opposed to, like, her whole career prior.
  - tehwebguy 4y ago
    > The city is run by the mob. Yeah and they are called police. > Jon Graham Burge (December 20, 1947 – September 19, 2018) was an American police detective and commander in the Chicago Police Department who was found guilty of having "directly participated in or implicitly approved the torture" of at least 118 people in police custody in order to force false confessions. Jon Burge Wikipedia: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jon_Burge https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jon_Burge Obviously Jon is very dead and quite retired but you can’t really maintain your spot as the most corrupt city in the country without buy-in from police.
    - StrangeATractor 4y ago
      Let's not oversimplify, I'm sure some mobsters aren't under such dubious employ as the City of Chicago.
gleenn 4y ago
I wonder how hard it is to download the whole database from this source. Would be cool if they released a straight sqlite file or something to do analysis.
- heavyset_go 4y ago
  They have an email on their about page that you can reach them at and ask for the records.
- twelvechairs 4y ago
  Or the next AI fad 'LAPD officer generator'
  - zoklet-enjoyer 4y ago
    AR glasses with cop recognition
    - SauciestGNU 4y ago
      I've been at enough protests where cop agent provocateurs are a problem that this would be an amazing threat identification tool.
- Ralo 4y ago
  The site doesn't seem to be thrown together very well, you can dump the entire DB by searching for a space character [0] (assuming every officer should have a space in their full name). It dumps as a nice JSON format with all the details. All the headshots can easily be extracted by appending "https://watchthewatchers.net/headshots/ https://watchthewatchers.net/headshots/" to the values from the "imagePath" value in the JSON dump. [0] https://watchthewatchers.net/api/search/%20 https://watchthewatchers.net/api/search/%20
  - spicybright 4y ago
    Here's a preview of clicking the API link: https://i.imgur.com/nbhL64L.png https://i.imgur.com/nbhL64L.png It took a while to load for me, so I'm posting this to spare the site from the HN hug of death, even if just a little bit.
nfgrep 4y ago
This is similar to the concept of “sousveillance” https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sousveillance https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sousveillance
- LoganDark 4y ago
  Non-"mobile" link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sousveillance https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sousveillance
woodruffw 4y ago
In a similar vein: a site that tracks NYPD misconduct reports[1]. [1]: https://www.50-a.org/ https://www.50-a.org/
zoklet-enjoyer 4y ago
[flagged]
- noduerme 4y ago
  this is like my favorite hobby when I'm bored and forced to watch football
- StrangeATractor 4y ago
  No way, "Thomas"?
- pharrington 4y ago
  ACAB (Assigned Cop At Birth)
- bigblackrooster 4y ago
  [dead]
killjoywashere 4y ago
2019 list of LAPD Officers and their serial numbers https://archive.org/details/LAPDRosterSortedByNameFebruary2019 https://archive.org/details/LAPDRosterSortedByNameFebruary20...
mellosouls 4y ago
Unless there is an equivalent LAPD initiative that uploads the pictures of law-abiding citizens with names and other identifying info to the public web, there will be suspicions that this is an anti-police (rather than anti-police-surveillance-abuse) measure intended to intimidate and obstruct police work. Neither is it clear how representative the organizers are of those law-abiding citizens generally rather than a minority mix of genuine victims of police abuse and political agitators using them. Note this is not a criticism of representative community efforts to hold police forces to account for bad behaviour, but this particular approach seems to play an antagonistic role informed as much by political ideology as genuine concern about police overreach.
- Reptur 4y ago
  It is public information, this is just an interface to access it. Google LASD Gangs, we need more transparency, not less.
  - kevviiinn 4y ago
    For reference https://knock-la.com/lasd-gangs-little-devils-wayside-whities-cavemen-vikings/ https://knock-la.com/lasd-gangs-little-devils-wayside-whitie... https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_LASD_deputy_gangs https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_LASD_deputy_gangs
- flangola7 4y ago
  By the lords above, beside, and below I am not going to pearl clutch and nitpick actions that disrupt police. They already have the systemic benefit of the doubt and so much more. If we start torturing their families on live camera then give me a page but until then.... I sleep.
- alwayslikethis 4y ago
  I wonder if it would be legal to use home surveillance cameras to identify police car license plates, facial recognition, to track individual police officers. Then you can have a good argument when you are trying to sue for illegal surveillance.
ryandrake 4y ago
I’m not sure I understand the point of Copwatching and documenting police abuses. Everyone knows about police abuses—the police even document their own abuses themselves with bodycams. It doesn’t matter to them because there are never consequences. It’s pointless to do all this documenting without a way to turn it into accountability.
- soared 4y ago
  Tell that to Rodney king
  - tstrimple 4y ago
    That had immediate feedback, but hasn't seemed to result in any systemic changes. Macklemore references this in his song A Wake. I grew up during Reaganomics When Ice T was out there on his killing cops shit Or Rodney King was getting beat on And they let off every single officer And Los Angeles went and lost it Now every month there's a new Rodney on YouTube It's just something our generation is used to
    - soared 4y ago
      I mean.. many states have implemented significant reform. Colorado has had a number of high visibility issues and has made meaningful changes due to the protests and media coverage. It’s just not true to say there hasn’t been systemic changes.
- chottocharaii 4y ago
  a few things: 1) it can be used by defense attorneys if they want to discredit an officer during a trial 2) it can be used for victim’s or abuse to obtain context and realise they’re not alone 3) public naming and shaming disincentivises bad behaviour
- zo1 4y ago
  [flagged]
shironandon 4y ago
are we watching those who watch the watchers.
- 13of40 4y ago
  Well, I just came in this thread to lurk, so I guess I'm watching those who are watching those who watch the watchers.
  - frollo 4y ago
    I'll just take a quick look at you, so we can be sure there's someone watching those who watch those who watch the watchers
- aa-jv 4y ago
  Subscribe to this channel and you can add your own attention to the effort: https://www.youtube.com/@AuditTheAudit https://www.youtube.com/@AuditTheAudit
- hugh-avherald 4y ago
  https://www.uscg.mil// https://www.uscg.mil//
spapas82 4y ago
This reminds of the Watchmen series. The policemen there wore masks (similar to superheroes) to avoid retribution by citizens.
tracker1 4y ago
Strong proponent of body cams... kind of wish it was ALL live streamed though.
iancmceachern 4y ago
What's the number of a good one to look up?
supportcops 4y ago
[flagged]
supportcops 4y ago
Naysayers on this site are ignorant about the Fact that Officers have to care about and assist them no matter how much they act like kids who need detention
supportcops 4y ago
Police surveil bad guys, so me thinks thou dost protest too much

191 points by Overtonwindow 4y ago

Super curious why so many of the photos are missing. Something tells me LAPD's going to scrutinize the release of their photos going forward after that release. If you try to request photos of police in Chicago, they claim to have some wild esoteric process to get the photo such that if you request any more than 5 photos, they'll deny the request it unduly burdensome because of the way to access those photos. It's... doubtful.. that that's actually the case since their badge system has photos and they just need to pull from there, but... it's tricky is all I'll say.

RajT88 4y ago
Chicago is a wild case. I have a buddy on the south side who is part of a number of local political action groups which meet at local churches and are organized by alderman. The city is run by the mob. If people try to pull the curtain aside to expose it, they disappear. Yeah yeah, hearsay. But this is a friend of mine I trust being told directly by alderman. I have wondered for a while why Lightfoot has taken positions on issues diametrically opposed to, like, her whole career prior.
- tehwebguy 4y ago
  > The city is run by the mob. Yeah and they are called police. > Jon Graham Burge (December 20, 1947 – September 19, 2018) was an American police detective and commander in the Chicago Police Department who was found guilty of having "directly participated in or implicitly approved the torture" of at least 118 people in police custody in order to force false confessions. Jon Burge Wikipedia: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jon_Burge https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jon_Burge Obviously Jon is very dead and quite retired but you can’t really maintain your spot as the most corrupt city in the country without buy-in from police.
  - StrangeATractor 4y ago
    Let's not oversimplify, I'm sure some mobsters aren't under such dubious employ as the City of Chicago.

gleenn 4y ago

I wonder how hard it is to download the whole database from this source. Would be cool if they released a straight sqlite file or something to do analysis.

heavyset_go 4y ago
They have an email on their about page that you can reach them at and ask for the records.
twelvechairs 4y ago
Or the next AI fad 'LAPD officer generator'
- zoklet-enjoyer 4y ago
  AR glasses with cop recognition
  - SauciestGNU 4y ago
    I've been at enough protests where cop agent provocateurs are a problem that this would be an amazing threat identification tool.
Ralo 4y ago
The site doesn't seem to be thrown together very well, you can dump the entire DB by searching for a space character [0] (assuming every officer should have a space in their full name). It dumps as a nice JSON format with all the details. All the headshots can easily be extracted by appending "https://watchthewatchers.net/headshots/ https://watchthewatchers.net/headshots/" to the values from the "imagePath" value in the JSON dump. [0] https://watchthewatchers.net/api/search/%20 https://watchthewatchers.net/api/search/%20
- spicybright 4y ago
  Here's a preview of clicking the API link: https://i.imgur.com/nbhL64L.png https://i.imgur.com/nbhL64L.png It took a while to load for me, so I'm posting this to spare the site from the HN hug of death, even if just a little bit.

nfgrep 4y ago

This is similar to the concept of “sousveillance” https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sousveillance https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sousveillance

LoganDark 4y ago
Non-"mobile" link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sousveillance https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sousveillance

woodruffw 4y ago

In a similar vein: a site that tracks NYPD misconduct reports[1]. [1]: https://www.50-a.org/ https://www.50-a.org/

zoklet-enjoyer 4y ago

[flagged]

noduerme 4y ago
this is like my favorite hobby when I'm bored and forced to watch football
StrangeATractor 4y ago
No way, "Thomas"?
pharrington 4y ago
ACAB (Assigned Cop At Birth)
bigblackrooster 4y ago
[dead]

killjoywashere 4y ago

2019 list of LAPD Officers and their serial numbers https://archive.org/details/LAPDRosterSortedByNameFebruary2019 https://archive.org/details/LAPDRosterSortedByNameFebruary20...

mellosouls 4y ago

Unless there is an equivalent LAPD initiative that uploads the pictures of law-abiding citizens with names and other identifying info to the public web, there will be suspicions that this is an anti-police (rather than anti-police-surveillance-abuse) measure intended to intimidate and obstruct police work. Neither is it clear how representative the organizers are of those law-abiding citizens generally rather than a minority mix of genuine victims of police abuse and political agitators using them. Note this is not a criticism of representative community efforts to hold police forces to account for bad behaviour, but this particular approach seems to play an antagonistic role informed as much by political ideology as genuine concern about police overreach.

Reptur 4y ago
It is public information, this is just an interface to access it. Google LASD Gangs, we need more transparency, not less.
- kevviiinn 4y ago
  For reference https://knock-la.com/lasd-gangs-little-devils-wayside-whities-cavemen-vikings/ https://knock-la.com/lasd-gangs-little-devils-wayside-whitie... https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_LASD_deputy_gangs https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_LASD_deputy_gangs
flangola7 4y ago
By the lords above, beside, and below I am not going to pearl clutch and nitpick actions that disrupt police. They already have the systemic benefit of the doubt and so much more. If we start torturing their families on live camera then give me a page but until then.... I sleep.
alwayslikethis 4y ago
I wonder if it would be legal to use home surveillance cameras to identify police car license plates, facial recognition, to track individual police officers. Then you can have a good argument when you are trying to sue for illegal surveillance.

ryandrake 4y ago

I’m not sure I understand the point of Copwatching and documenting police abuses. Everyone knows about police abuses—the police even document their own abuses themselves with bodycams. It doesn’t matter to them because there are never consequences. It’s pointless to do all this documenting without a way to turn it into accountability.

soared 4y ago
Tell that to Rodney king
- tstrimple 4y ago
  That had immediate feedback, but hasn't seemed to result in any systemic changes. Macklemore references this in his song A Wake. I grew up during Reaganomics When Ice T was out there on his killing cops shit Or Rodney King was getting beat on And they let off every single officer And Los Angeles went and lost it Now every month there's a new Rodney on YouTube It's just something our generation is used to
  - soared 4y ago
    I mean.. many states have implemented significant reform. Colorado has had a number of high visibility issues and has made meaningful changes due to the protests and media coverage. It’s just not true to say there hasn’t been systemic changes.
chottocharaii 4y ago
a few things: 1) it can be used by defense attorneys if they want to discredit an officer during a trial 2) it can be used for victim’s or abuse to obtain context and realise they’re not alone 3) public naming and shaming disincentivises bad behaviour
zo1 4y ago
[flagged]

shironandon 4y ago

are we watching those who watch the watchers.

13of40 4y ago
Well, I just came in this thread to lurk, so I guess I'm watching those who are watching those who watch the watchers.
- frollo 4y ago
  I'll just take a quick look at you, so we can be sure there's someone watching those who watch those who watch the watchers
aa-jv 4y ago
Subscribe to this channel and you can add your own attention to the effort: https://www.youtube.com/@AuditTheAudit https://www.youtube.com/@AuditTheAudit
hugh-avherald 4y ago
https://www.uscg.mil// https://www.uscg.mil//

spapas82 4y ago

This reminds of the Watchmen series. The policemen there wore masks (similar to superheroes) to avoid retribution by citizens.

tracker1 4y ago

Strong proponent of body cams... kind of wish it was ALL live streamed though.

iancmceachern 4y ago

What's the number of a good one to look up?

supportcops 4y ago

[flagged]

supportcops 4y ago

Naysayers on this site are ignorant about the Fact that Officers have to care about and assist them no matter how much they act like kids who need detention

supportcops 4y ago

Police surveil bad guys, so me thinks thou dost protest too much