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Wednesday, June 09, 2010

Former cop union boss: I had a spy inside San Jose police auditor's office

June 9, 2010
Sean Webby, Mercury News

In a breach that may have compromised investigations of alleged police misconduct, an employee of San Jose's Independent Police Auditor repeatedly leaked confidential information over several years to the San Jose police officer's union, the union's former president has told the Mercury News.

Police Sgt. Bobby Lopez said that the person, whom he would not identify, gave him inside information about complaints against police officers made to the IPA. At one point, he said he was tipped to an upcoming Mercury News story about the violent arrest of a San Jose State University student.

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... Last October, the person tipped the union president that the Mercury News had obtained a cell phone video of a San Jose State student Phuong Ho, as he was being violently arrested, Lopez said.

In order to divert attention from the video, which some experts felt showed excessive force, Lopez then asked Taser Inc. to quickly announce that the department had been chosen to test AXON — a new technology that records through video and audio officers contacts with the public.

Both the Axon pilot program and the video made news in the following weeks, with the pilot program being used to paint San Jose police as progressive in their willingness to document arrests.

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