Los Angeles Police Officer Pleads Not Guilty In Whistleblower Case
Daniel Flores, 43, made secret recordings of racist police officers
Los Angeles police officer Daniel Flores pleaded not guilty today to accusations he recorded fellow LAPD officers making racist, homophobic and sexist remarks in the Department’s Recruitment and Employment Division (RED). One of the officers, listed only as “J.E.” joked with his partner about sexually abusing his cousin on Flores’s recordings.
It’s unclear whether any other LAPD officers have been disciplined.
Flores is charged with 16 counts of PC632(A), eavesdropping, for allegedly recording other officers as part of a “lawful investigation as a police officer”, as reported by NBC Los Angeles, while quoting a separate civil lawsuit filed by Flores.
This account is disputed by District Attorney Nathan Hochman, who stated in a recent filing, “Had Flores’ goal been to expose bigotry among his co-workers, he could have proceeded through legally valid channels.” However, Flores’s attorney, Alan Jackson, states that Flores, “walked it into Internal Affairs and gave it to his own department, in an official complaint.” Permanent Record has reached out to the District Attorney for clarification.
The recordings, made in 2024, show employees in the RED division routinely engaged in bizarre and unacceptable workplace conduct, including joking about sexual abuse and using a variety of racial and ethnic slurs.
Flores, who has served with the LAPD for more than ten years, is facing thirteen years in prison for secretly making the recordings and providing them to Internal Affairs and the Office of the Inspector General, a civilian oversight board. His next hearing is September 9, 2026.
Glad you are covering this. It signals to me that the LAPD is more interested in punishing whistleblowers than cleaning up the department.