Los Angeles taxpayers paid for airline tickets, hotel stays, car rentals, and meals.
What to Know
LAPD officers were dispatched to California cities outside of Los Angeles at least a dozen times to provide security for U.S. Sen. Harris
LA taxpayers paid for airline tickets, hotel stays, car rentals, and meals, according to detailed expense reports
The unusual arrangement was shut down by new LAPD Chief Michel Moore in July
Armed, plain-clothes LAPD officers were dispatched to
California cities outside of Los Angeles at least a dozen times to
provide security for U.S. Sen. Kamala Harris at public events, media
appearances, and a party.
LA taxpayers paid for
airline tickets, hotel stays, car rentals, and meals, according to
detailed expense reports obtained by NBC News. The total cost of the
trips, not including the officers' overtime, topped $28,000.
The
LAPD routinely provides security for dignitaries and officials visiting
LA, but a senior retired department official said the courtesy extended
to Sen. Harris for her travels to other cities was unprecedented.
Mayor
Eric Garcetti's office said the Mayor was, "unaware," of this unusual
arrangement until July, when it was shut down by new LAPD Chief Michel
Moore.
"It was not until Chief Moore was sworn in,
conducted a new assessment of the threat, determined that this
arrangement was no longer needed, and informed Mayor Garcetti, that the
mayor became aware of the state-wide detail," Garcetti spokesman Alex
Comisar wrote in an email Wednesday.
Garcetti said former LAPD Chief Charlie Beck was solely responsible for the program.
"Chief
of Police Charlie Beck assigned a security detail for US Senator Kamala
Harris shortly before she was sworn into office in 2017, based on a
threat assessment he believed to be credible," said LAPD spokesman Josh
Rubenstein. "Funding for the detail was provided by the Department
budget."
Beck's signature appears on many of the
LAPD documents authorizing the trips, including one that occured just 10
days after Harris was sworn-in to the Senate, in which two officers
flew to Oakland to go with Harris to a, "retirement event," for a
California Department of Justice official.
NBC4 asked LAPD to contact Beck for comment. No response had been received at the time of publication.
Between
January 2017 and July 2018 the records show LAPD officers flew to San
Francisco at least seven times, including a trip in April 2017, when
Harris gave TV interviews, a trip in March 2018 for a speech at a YMCA
event, and a visit in June 2018, to escort Harris to the San Francisco
Pride parade, where LAPD officers were visible in video and pictures
captured along the parade route.
Officers also
traveled to Sacramento, Fresno, and San Diego for Harris. The use of the
officers and the purpose of the trips were confirmed by Harris' office.
"Since
she became a protectee more than a decade ago, Senator Harris has
always deferred to public safety experts on procedures, protocols and
determinations," said Harris' communications director Lily Adams. "Our
office did not request or question LAPD's decision to provide protection
and we are grateful for the ongoing work of officers in Los Angeles and
across the state who risk their lives to keep all Californians safe,"
she said.
The decision to end the out-of-town
security program for Harris was made around the time the Los Angeles
Times filed a lawsuit that demanded Mayor Eric Garcetti turn over
records detailing the taxpayer expense of his own security detail during
his extensive out-of-state travels, after both City Hall and the LAPD
refused to release the documents through a routine California Public
Records Act request.
"Unfortunately we are not able
to give out this information, as it could potentially undermine the
Mayor's safety and security," LAPD spokesman Rubenstein wrote in an
email to the Los Angeles Times that was cited in the newspaper's
lawsuit.
The Times' lawsuit claims there is no portion of the Records Act that exempts these expense records from public disclosure.
An
attorney for the Times pointed out in a court filing that the U.S.
Secret Service has provided information about the cost of travelling
security details for both Presidents Trump and Obama, and the cities of
Chicago, Baltimore, and Seattle have all produced similar mayoral
expense records for public review.
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