The foundation: Inside the LAPD's secretive, multimillion-dollar private funding arm

The Los Angeles Police Department and its multibillion-dollar budget were under intense public scrutiny in the spring of 2020. The COVID-19 pandemic had greatly reduced city revenue amid some of the largest and most destructive street protests in decades. The LAPD was being accused of exacerbating the unrest and bungling its response. Activists and politicians were calling for the department's funding to be slashed in favor of social services for the homeless, mentally ill and poor. Behind closed doors, the money from private donors kept coming. "I wanted to share that since May 28th, we have received more than $48,000 in online donations in support of the Department -- a record for our organization and unlike anything we've ever seen," Dana Katz, head of the private Los Angeles Police Foundation, wrote in a June 9, 2020, email to LAPD Chief Michel Moore. Katz wrote to Moore again a couple of weeks later, this time with a list of donors who would be taking part in an exclusive call with him that she had arranged. Katz told Moore it "would be great" if he would brief the philanthropists and corporate bigwigs on the recent protests, the department's plans for reform and the potential negative effects of "defunding" the police.