Editor’s note: This article contains offensive and derogatory remarks included in the complaint. Discretion is advised.
The Los Angeles Police Department is under scrutiny after a complaint was filed accusing officers of making racist and other derogatory comments about their colleagues. The alleged remarks were secretly recorded.
According to an explosive Los Angeles Times investigative report, an officer working in LAPD’s recruitment office recorded dozens of conversations for the better part of a year. The LA Times report details roughly 90 recordings of officers and supervisors purported voicing open discrimination against potential recruits and colleagues based on race and orientation.
In one conversation, a Latina LAPD officer offered advice on how to fight African Americans.
“You hit Black people in the liver. I heard they got weak livers,” she said, according to the complaint filed on January 5th with the LAPD’s professional standards bureau and the inspector general’s office. The same officer allegedly described a Latina janitor to her colleagues as a “wetback.”
The complaint accuses LAPD Sgt. Denny Jong of leading the prejudicial banter. In one conversation with subordinates about Dodgers legend Fernando Valenzuela, who passed away in 2024 from septic shock, Jong allegedly said, “I know why he died. He ate too much tacos,” the complaint alleges.
The complaint also claims officers reportedly referred to black people as “monkeys.”
The complaining officer, a Latino with 10 years on the job, initially made his accusations anonymously but is now handing over dozens of hours of recordings that took place between March and October 2024. When news of this complaint broke, LAPD Chief Jim McDonnell removed a lieutenant, a sergeant and four officers from the recruiting unit, saying he was “deeply disappointed” by the reports.
A scandal in the LAPD’s recruiting office could not come at a worse time. The force is struggling to recruit new officers, and more than 100 cops are expected to leave by next year, dropping the department to the lowest number of officers in nearly 30 years.
