Editorial: Threatening reporters further hurts Becerra’s credibility on police transparency

Does state Attorney General Xavier Becerra think it is his job to help police officers keep their crimes buried? That’s a legit question, not a cheap shot, in light of news that Becerra threatened journalists with the UC Berkeley Investigative Reporting Program and its Investigative Studios over their possession of a list of about 3,500 past and present law enforcement officers and thousands of police applicants in California who have committed crimes. The journalists obtained the list legally by a records request to the California Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training (POST).

According to a report by the Berkeley program’s Robert Lewis and Jason Paladino published on the KQED website, Becerra didn’t just warn journalists with the program not to report on the records, he threatened them with “legal action unless they destroyed the records, insisting they are confidential under state law and were released inadvertently.” Instead, the reporters rejected Becerra’s demand.

The list was provided to POST by Becerra’s office as a result of a new law allowing POST to have information on officers’ crimes so it could better help agencies with background checks. Previous checks were hampered by the fact that officers’ crimes weren’t compiled until all their appeals were complete.

Becerra’s resistance to transparency is terrible. He has refused to release police discipline records of the law enforcement agents who work for him, as he should under Senate Bill 1421. And while he accepts that the law, which took effect Jan. 1, applies to discipline records before 2019, his withholding of all records until courts rule on the law effectively buoys police unions’ attempts to prevent their release. Becerra says he’s erring on the side of privacy. But his bullying of journalists is a giant error of its own.

Twitter: @sdutIdeas

Facebook: San Diego Union-Tribune Ideas & Opinion