BAKERSFIELD, Calif. — The Bakersfield Police Officers Association has filed a lawsuit in an effort to stop the release of specific police records in hopes of keeping them from going public.
The lawsuit is in connection to Senate Bill 1421 which was signed into law this year. The law makes records public related to officer-involved shootings and investigations that have sustained findings of sexual assault and dishonesty while officers were on duty.
Previously, those records were protected.
The lawsuit is asking a judge to put an injunction in place to stop the release of records for any incidents that happened prior to January 1 of this year.
In a phone interview with 23ABC in January, the City Attorney's Office told 23ABC that they had received several requests through SB-1421.
The City Attorney's Office told 23ABC that they would honor requests filed related to incidents prior to January 1 because the law did not specify a time frame that the public could request.
23ABC reached out to the City Attorney about the newly filed lawsuit, but they said they had not been served with anything, so they could not comment on the issue.
Police officer unions in at least nine counties have challenged the law, suing to keep records secret and arguing that the legislation does not apply retroactively.
