John Oliver took aim at a Southern California police department on HBO, and the agency quickly fired back.
The Rialto Police Department pushed back against the “Last Week Tonight” host after he criticized its use of privately owned security cameras, saying his segment left viewers with a distorted understanding of the program.
In a response, the department said Oliver’s coverage “did not accurately reflect how the Rialto Police Department utilizes this technology or the safeguards that govern its use.”
Oliver’s Sunday episode included a discussion of Fusus, a platform that lets law enforcement access video from participating private security cameras during emergencies and criminal investigations.
As part of the segment, Oliver alleged that Rialto essentially pressures new businesses to share camera access with police as part of the permitting process, quipping that owners must decide whether opening a nail salon is “worth being a narc on passers-by.”
Rialto police strongly disputed that characterization.
Capt. Lamont Quarker, a spokesman for the department, said no business has ever been blocked from opening because it declined to join the camera-access program.
Quarker said officers instead explain the system to business owners, including what police can and cannot view and what privacy safeguards apply, before owners decide for themselves whether to participate.
“Our experience has been that once business owners better understand the program, many choose to participate because they recognize the public safety benefits,” Quarker said, adding the city is considering changing its policy so businesses would only be required to discuss the program with police, while participation would remain voluntary.
Quarker defended Fusus as a modern extension of long-standing partnerships between police and local businesses.
“This technology has helped officers identify suspects, locate fleeing offenders, recover evidence, and respond more effectively to incidents involving violent crime and threats to public safety,” he told the Pasadena Star-News. “Access to real-time information can reduce response times, improve officer safety and better protect victims and the community.”
He pointed to one armed robbery in which officers arrested fleeing suspects just 15 minutes after they took off from a gas station, a response he credited to camera feeds that were already available to police.
Oliver also mocked the department after his show requested Fusus records and received a 30,413-page paper printout instead of a searchable digital file, wheeling six boxes of documents onto the stage for laughs.
Quarker acknowledged the paper production was a mistake.
“While that intention was well-meaning, it was not the appropriate response,” he said. “There was no attempt to conceal, alter or withhold data.”
After converting the records into a searchable database, Oliver said the logs showed police accessing cameras inside fast-food restaurants, including employee-only areas, and at a Rialto Days Inn, including one overlooking the pool.
“And if you worked at the Chick-Fil-A there, just know that on one Tuesday afternoon, Rialto had five of your interior cameras open for two hours straight,” Oliver said. “Which feels a little weird to me.”
He also joked that “getting secretly watched in your swimsuit is not supposed to be one of the perks of staying at a Days Inn.”
But Quarker said Oliver’s conclusion was based on a misunderstanding of the logs.
According to the captain, the records reflected camera feeds that were simply available on department monitors, not officers actively watching them for hours at a time.
“The reason we maintain this passive monitoring is straightforward: during an emergency, seconds matter,” Quarker said, explaining officers can lose up to 90 seconds locating the right camera during a fast-moving emergency.
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