Around 300 maskless police officers attend ‘superspreader’ event, CA complaint says
Two community groups in California filed a complaint on Monday alleging the Long Beach Police Department’s senior staff held a coronavirus superspreader event last month.
The Long Beach Reform Coalition and People of Long Beach accused Chief of Police Robert Luna of holding a gathering of approximately 300 police officers Nov. 5 inside the Long Beach Convention Center, according to the complaint filed with the Citizen Police Complaint Commission.
The groups said that the event was held “without requiring compliance with Health Department mandates associated with social distancing and masks to prevent the spread of COVID-19, thereby knowingly and willfully ordering a superspreader event to take place.”
The police department said that a photo during the event, which shows officers not wearing masks, was “taken during a mobile field force training exercise” and that there aren’t any positive cases linked to the gathering, according to NBC Los Angeles.
“To effectively train our officers on large-scale mobilization tactics, these trainings gradually grew in size and scope, culminating in the training event on November 5th, which was the largest day of training,” the department said in the statement, according to the station. “On this day, the Department’s executive staff decided to attend the training event to address our officers and recognize and thank them for their time, dedication, and sacrifice during this election period. At the conclusion, a photograph was taken with officers wearing facial coverings. However, other photographs were taken where officers are not wearing facial coverings.”
The groups are asking the Citizen Police Complaint Commission to conduct a probe by subpoenaing documents and personnel lists, requiring sworn oaths for testimony and holding public hearings “to prevent the LBPD or the city administration from covering up yet another wholesale violation of the public trust,” according to NBC Los Angeles.
The organizations also said the police department experienced a coronavirus outbreak around the same time as the event.
In early November, three officers tested positive within a few days, according to the Long Beach Post. A dozen officers also tested positive for coronavirus that month, the publication reported.
There have been 81 positive cases among police officers, uninformed airport staff and park rangers reported by the department since the beginning of the year, according to NBC Los Angeles. There have been 49 positive cases among uniformed personnel since Nov. 1, the department said.
Los Angeles County, where Long Beach is located, reported a record-high 131 coronavirus deaths on Wednesday and an all-time high of 21,411 daily cases, the Los Angeles Times reported.
There are more than 16 million confirmed coronavirus cases in the U.S. and more than 306,000 deaths as of Dec. 16, according to Johns Hopkins University.
This story was originally published December 16, 2020 at 4:58 PM with the headline "Around 300 maskless police officers attend ‘superspreader’ event, CA complaint says."