DAVIS, Calif. — The Sacramento Bee and the Los Angeles Times filed a lawsuit Wednesday against the University of California Board of Regents claiming that the public has the right to know the names of the police officers involved in a pepper-spray incident that took place in November on the UC Davis campus.
The newspapers argued in court papers that the withholding of the names of officers “contradicts California law, which requires officers to wear name tags on their uniforms” and is not in the public’s best interest, The Sacramento Bee reports. The names were redacted from a task force study of the incident released in April.
The report originally contained the names of the officers, but a court battle waged by the Federated University Police Officers Association resulted in their redaction. Only two names were left in the report — those of Police Chief Annette Spicuzza and Lt. John Pike— because Spicuzza and Pike were identifiable in a video of the incident that went viral.
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- Report: UC System Shouldn’t Use Force to Control Protests
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- Hacker Group Targets Pepper-Spraying Cop
- Pepper Spraying Prompts UC Davis to Put Police Chief on Leave
- 2 UC Davis Officers on Leave for Pepper Spraying Protesters
