Traci Park's top campaign contributor caught in another scandal that will cost us millions

Another day, another LAPD scandal. This time, officers in the department’s recruiting division have been accused of making racist and sexist remarks—exposing yet again the deep-seated culture of bigotry within the force. While the department claims to be working on diversity and inclusion, these latest revelations show how little has changed. Yet, even as LAPD continues to disgrace itself on a national stage, one of its most loyal supporters in City Hall, Traci Park, remains silent. Her unwavering allegiance to the department isn’t just about ideology—it’s about power, influence, and money.

Traci Park, the Los Angeles City Councilmember for District 11, has proven time and again that she is nothing more than a mouthpiece for the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) and its so-called union, the Los Angeles Police Protective League (LAPPL). While our city struggles under the weight of homelessness, skyrocketing rent, and underfunded public services, Park has made it her mission to funnel as much power and funding as possible into the hands of an agency infamous for brutality, corruption, and financial drain on taxpayers.

The latest scandal engulfing the LAPD—supervisors accused of making racist and sexist remarks—adds yet another stain to the department’s long history of misconduct. But for Park, none of this matters. She remains one of LAPD’s most loyal servants, despite the department’s astronomical liability costs, which have forced the city to consider borrowing $80 million just to cover legal settlements. Between July 2019 and June 2023, the city spent nearly $472 million on lawsuits, with the LAPD responsible for the lion’s share. Park has remained silent on this financial disaster while ensuring that LAPD remains the best-funded arm of city government.

Park’s Record on Police Brutality: Silence and Excuses

If Park’s allegiance to LAPD wasn’t clear enough, her response to police killings speaks volumes. One month after taking office, LAPD tased Keenan Anderson to death less than a mile from her Venice home. Anderson’s murder was the third LAPD killing in the first few days of 2023, igniting national outrage. Park remained silent for a full week before issuing a statement that blamed Anderson’s death on his mental health rather than police violence. When confronted by Black organizers at City Hall about the killing, she refused to engage and instead called the police on them.

Just days after LAPD murdered Anderson, Memphis police brutally killed Tyre Nichols. In response, Black Lives Matter LA led a vigil for both men, which turned into a march to Park’s home. Once again, she refused to engage with the community she claims to represent. And when Black Lives Matter street art in Venice was vandalized in April 2023, she said nothing.

None of this is surprising, given her deep financial ties to the police. Park received a staggering $1.5 million from a LAPPL-backed PAC and was endorsed by eight different law enforcement agencies. She doesn’t just support LAPD—she works for them.

Police and corporate interests didn’t back Park’s campaign on a whim. They knew exactly who they were buying: a lawyer who spent her career defending police brutality, racism, and union-busting.

Park built her legal career at Littler Mendelson, one of the world’s leading union-busting firms, and continued this work at Ogletree Deakins—a firm that defended racist Sheriff Joe Arpaio, backed North Carolina Republicans in gerrymandering lawsuits, and fights labor unions across the country. She later joined Burke, Williams & Sorensen, where she exclusively represented management, helping cities and corporations fight civil rights claims. One of her most disturbing cases was Harrell v. City of Anaheim (2021), in which she argued that a white employee repeatedly using the n-word and making sexual jokes around a Black coworker did not constitute harassment. Fortunately, the judge disagreed.

Now, as a councilmember, she continues to funnel money into her former firm. Since taking office, legal contracts between Burke, Williams & Sorensen and the City of LA have ballooned from $100,000 to $1.335 million—mostly for defending LAPD misconduct. In other words, LA taxpayers are paying over a million dollars to the law firm that Park built her career in, all to shield abusive officers from accountability.

Park’s unwavering loyalty to law enforcement extends beyond funding. She actively pushes policies that expand LAPD’s power while eroding civil rights.

In February 2023, she proposed a motion to encourage teachers and social workers to become police officers, further entrenching law enforcement in spaces meant to support the community. The next month, she made headlines for supporting LAPD’s purchase of a military surveillance robot, or “robot dog.” The move was widely ridiculed, with Vice noting how it underscored “the power of well-funded police lobbyists to purchase influence in local governments.”

By 2024, Park had only doubled down on her commitment to an all-encompassing surveillance state. She introduced a motion pushing for a “real-time crime center” on the Westside, backing LAPD’s push for a $15 million integrated surveillance network. These centers aggregate video surveillance from license plate readers, gunshot detection systems, helicopters, and even private homeowners’ security cameras—all fed into central hubs where police monitor them in real time, often using predictive policing algorithms. Civil rights groups warn that these centers serve as tools for racial profiling and mass surveillance, but Park is eager to see them expanded in her own district.

Traci Park launched her bid for City Council in the wake of the George Floyd uprisings, as cities across the country debated the future of policing. While communities demanded investments in housing, healthcare, and education—real solutions for public safety—Park aligned herself with reactionaries desperate to increase police budgets. She ran as LAPD’s candidate, won with their backing, and now governs as their most loyal operative in City Hall.