A trove of confidential LAPD records, including officer personnel files and documents from Internal Affairs investigations, are among the materials believed to have been seized by hackers in a breach involving the Los Angeles City Attorney's Office.
The Los Angeles Police Department said in a statement Tuesday that unauthorized persons had gained access to a digital storage system containing discovery documents from previously adjudicated or settled LAPD civil litigation.
“We take this incident very seriously and are working with the Los Angeles City Attorney's Office to gain access to the affected files and understand the full scope of the data breach,” the department stated.
Some of the logs have begun to appear on social media platforms, including X. Among the first to post a file of the hack was the account @WhosTheCop, which regularly posts information related to police accountability.
The account administrator said a security researcher was the first to reveal the breach. The files had apparently been removed on Tuesday afternoon.
City and LAPD officials did not comment on whether the hackers requested a ransom in exchange for not disclosing the information and whether the city paid one.
Under state law, most police officer records are considered private. If authentic, the disclosure represents a stunning breach of police data. Only rarely do Internal Affairs documents appear in civil lawsuits and criminal cases, and even then they are often heavily redacted.
In total, according to the data breach publications, there were 7.7 terabytes of information available for download and more than 337,000 files. The trove included confidential records turned over as part of discovery in court cases, such as witness names, health information, unredacted criminal complaints and investigative files.
Times staff writer Clara Harter contributed to this report.
