Officer accuses Glendora PD of racial harassment, arrest-quota pressure
Officer sues Glendora PD for alleged racism
A police officer is suing the Glendora Police Department over alleged racism.
LOS ANGELES COUNTY, Calif. - A Glendora police officer is speaking out, alleging racial harassment, arrest-quota pressure, and retaliation inside his department.
Officer Andrew Hwang, who joined the Glendora Police Department in 2023, says the reality of his experience was far from what he expected.
"I wanted to pursue a job and a career where I could help people in a tangible way," Hwang told FOX 11. "But these high-ranking supervisors are making these jabs and comments knowing I can't say anything."
Hwang says one of the most painful incidents happened during an end-of-deployment dinner at Sushi Martini in Rancho Cucamonga, where a lieutenant allegedly told him to "get back in the kitchen and cook for the group because you're Asian."
"You're telling your only Asian officer to go back in the kitchen because I look different?" Hwang said. "I'm Korean. I'm not even Japanese, but they think it's funny to lump us together as one."
Private messages shared with FOX 11 appear to show another officer acknowledging the pattern of harassment.
One message included a video filled with stereotypical Asian phrases such as "noodle, noodle, noodle... wok, wok, wok." Hwang says that officer reached out to show support, texting: "everybody at GPD to you," which Hwang interpreted as solidarity about how common the remarks had become.
In addition to racial harassment, Hwang says he was pressured to increase arrests. He provided FOX 11 with messages sent by the President of the Glendora Police Officers' Association urging officers to push annual arrest numbers back up to 1,700 a year.
Other department-wide messages included, "the jail sure is empty" and "those crickets are getting loud." "If you put the expectation of a quota onto officers, it opens the door to corruption, to unethical stops, unethical arrests," said Hwang.
Hwang says that when he finally reported the harassment, the department failed to protect him. He alleges his complaint was exposed, and shortly afterward he became the target of three separate Internal Affairs investigations.
His civil attorney, George Aloupas, told FOX 11, "They did it in retaliation to make it look like he was bad at his job, to try to terminate him."
Aloupas represents Hwang in his civil discrimination and retaliation lawsuit against the City of Glendora and its police department, while attorney Nicole Castronovo is handling the administrative side of his case within GPD.
"I don't know why the city would permit such conduct to go on," Castronovo said. "Glendora has a growing Asian American population, 11 percent, and this is a concern."
Hwang says the experience has left him shaken.
"Every day we put on a badge, gun and bulletproof vest and it's a grim reminder of the risks we take to protect the community," Hwang said. "Only to be betrayed and racially discriminated against."
Hwang is currently on administrative leave, and his attorneys argue that the same supervisors he accused of discrimination were involved in the internal investigations against him.
FOX 11 reached out to the City of Glendora and the Glendora Police Department for comment; neither has responded.