LOS ANGELES — A Los Angeles police officer who alleges she was retaliated against for speaking out against illegal arrest quotas is challenging the city’s effort to dismiss a consolidated lawsuit filed by six officers against the Los Angeles Police Department, according to a Daily News press release.
Officer Samantha Fiedler, the lead plaintiff, alleges that LAPD commanders enforced an unofficial quota system prioritizing gang contacts and gun-related arrests and punished officers who failed to meet those expectations. The lawsuit, filed in Los Angeles Superior Court, contends that officers who raised concerns about the practice faced career-damaging consequences, including reassignment, loss of police powers and internal investigations.
Fiedler, a former member of the department’s Metropolitan Division, first filed her complaint in August 2020. The case was later consolidated with similar lawsuits brought by Officers Mario Fernandez, Julio Garcia, Rene Braga, Raul Uribe and John Walker.
In sworn declarations opposing the city’s motion to dismiss, Fiedler said supervisors consistently emphasized “recap,” a documentation of stops, arrests, tickets or encounters involving alleged gang members, as the primary measure of officer performance. According to Fiedler, “the crown jewel” of recap was a gang-related gun arrest, which she said was openly praised by command staff and discussed regularly during roll calls.
In the press release, Fiedler said promotions and career advancement were closely tied to recap numbers, while officers considered low producers were subject to criticism and negative employment actions. Supervisors allegedly referred to those officers as “coffee drinkers” or “cafecitos,” while higher-producing officers were praised as “hard workers” or “pistoleros.”
She also described roll call briefings in which officers were pressured to increase recap and scolded for low numbers. Fiedler said she spoke up during one such briefing, telling supervisors it was “wrong and dangerous” to push recap in that way.
Fiedler said she was reassigned in 2019 and later stripped of her badge, firearms and police powers in early 2020, when she was placed on home duty and downgraded. She said a sergeant later told her she would lose her job and receive little compensation from her lawsuit because she had “snitched.”
The Los Angeles City Attorney’s Office disputes the officers’ claims and argues the lawsuit should be dismissed. In court filings, city lawyers contend there are no triable issues and point to Fiedler’s deposition testimony, in which she acknowledged that no supervisor explicitly told her to increase gun seizures or arrest numbers.
The city maintains that Fiedler was placed on home duty after the department initiated an investigation into alleged misconduct involving the falsification of field interview cards, forms used to document police contacts and stops in the field. City attorneys emphasized that the department requested her downgrade shortly thereafter.
Some of Fiedler’s co-plaintiffs were previously charged with deliberately misidentifying individuals as gang members, though a judge later dismissed those cases.
Fiedler, whose father and sister are also LAPD officers, said the retaliation and prolonged stress ultimately forced her to leave the department. She later earned a law degree and moved out of state, saying she needed to “stay afloat financially” and rebuild her life outside the department.
The lawsuit comes amid broader scrutiny of policing practices in Los Angeles and nationwide, particularly concerns that informal performance pressures can incentivize aggressive enforcement tactics. At issue in the case is not only whether retaliation occurred, but whether internal expectations around arrests and gang contacts crossed legal and constitutional lines — and whether officers who objected faced punishment for doing so.
A judge has not yet ruled on the city’s motion to dismiss.
Follow the Vanguard on Social Media – X, Instagram and Facebook. Subscribe the Vanguard News letters. To make a tax-deductible donation, please visit davisvanguard.org/donate or give directly through ActBlue. Your support will ensure that the vital work of the Vanguard continues.
