LAPD releases first body cam video under new policy

By Frank Stoltze

, Aaron Mendelson

Published June 20, 2018 07:59 PM

File: LAPD Chief Charlie Beck addresses the media at Police Headquarters in Los Angeles. — LAPD Chief Charlie Beck.

The policy requires the release of footage in critical incidents within 45 days. The video released Wednesday is an edited version of a fatal incident in South L.A. It shows officers subduing a suspect who had been holding a metal pipe. After being handcuffed, the man stops breathing and later dies.

Frank Stoltze

I came to L.A. as a very young reporter on New Year’s Day, 1991. Two months later, four LAPD officers were caught on videotape beating Rodney King. A year later, the night before the riots/rebellion broke out, I was in the Nickerson Gardens housing project in Watts at an extraordinary rally of rival gangs that had brokered a truce.

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Aaron Mendelson

As senior data and investigative reporter, Aaron Mendelson reported on money in politics, police shootings, the lottery, the militarization of law enforcement and more. His 2020 story on a troubled empire of rental housing was recognized by the Online Journalism Awards and the IRE Awards.

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