Overview
- The district attorney announced on Wednesday, Aug. 19, that he will drop 16 felony eavesdropping counts against Officer Daniel Flores to 16 misdemeanors and that prosecutors expect the case to resolve through judicial diversion.
- Prosecutors say Flores made roughly 122 secret recordings in 2024 while assigned to the LAPD recruitment division and that he submitted more than 120 tapes and complaints to LAPD Internal Affairs and the Police Commission in January 2025.
- The DA denounced the recorded remarks as hate speech but said they did not meet the legal standard for hate-crime charges and that internal disciplinary proceedings for the officers who were taped remain confidential.
- Prosecutors have alleged Flores deceptively edited some recordings and pursued the case in part to enforce California’s two-party consent law, which makes secret recordings without all participants' consent a crime.
- The downgrade reflects public and elected-official pressure and highlights a broader tension between enforcing privacy law and protecting whistleblowers, with the diversion path likely to avoid prison but leave internal accountability separate from criminal outcomes.