Officer Daniel Flores was initially charged with 16 felonies after he shared recordings with the LAPD's internal affairs unit

The Los Angeles district attorney has dropped felony charges against a police officer who secretly recorded his colleagues making racist remarks.

Los Angeles Police Department Officer Daniel Flores was charged in July with 16 felony counts after submitting audio to internal affairs in early 2025. The tapes, recorded within the LAPD’s recruitment division, captured officers making explicit remarks and were first disclosed by the Los Angeles Times.

District Attorney Nathan Hochman had initially charged Flores under California’s decades-old eavesdropping statute, which mandates the consent of all parties present to legally record conversations. The original charges carried a maximum sentence of 13 years in prison.

The charges sparked swift backlash, particularly from Flores’ attorney, Alan Jackson. Speaking to the LA Times in July, Jackson warned that the case communicated that “if you document bigotry inside the LAPD, you will be the one who ends up in a courtroom. It tells them the safe move is to hear slurs and say nothing.”

Archived at https://web.archive.org/web/20260821132859/https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/lapd-officer-daniel-flores-secret-recordings-charges-b3035944.html

  • BlameTheAntifa@lemmy.world
    75·
    3 days ago

    Hochman stated that his office was “listening to the impact the case was having on potential whistleblowers” when deciding to scale back the charges, acknowledging that the initial prosecution “sent the wrong message” to the public. While describing the comments by the other officers as “hate speech,” the district attorney noted there was insufficient evidence of a hate crime to bring criminal charges against them.

    Fuck Hochman. There should never have been charges, and the racist pigs should have been fired. Charging a good faith whistleblower with any crime is vile. Hochman is lawless, fascist scum.

    • N0t_5ure@lemmy.world
      32·
      3 days ago

      Yeah, he didn’t like the press his efforts were bringing, so he backtracked. If this hadn’t hit the news he’d be happily prosecuting.

    • captainlezbian@lemmy.world
      5·
      3 days ago

      Well I feel confident saying that any defense attorney who goes up against them would have a real easy job if I were on the jury. Maybe they can’t be arrested, but holy shit can they become a liability to the force

      • TranscendentalEmpire@lemmy.today
        9·
        3 days ago

        That’s the thing… You don’t have to do an actual crime to be reprimanded or dismissed by your employer. I imagine that committing hate speech is a fireable offense in pretty much any other job in America. It’s crazy that the bar to fire a cop is set at prove they did a hate crime.