More than a dozen Los Angeles police officers were suspended or reassigned after a Southern California woman reported that her son had been incorrectly labeled a gang member, unleashing a broader inquiry into whether officers were falsifying records, according to the authorities.

The Los Angeles Police Department opened an investigation early last year, when a mother in the San Fernando Valley approached a local police station to tell officers about a letter she had received saying that her son, a minor, had been identified as a gang member. She told a supervisor that he had been mislabeled, the Police Department said in a statement on Tuesday.

Such letters are required by state law, when an individual is slated, to be uploaded to CalGang, a state database that law enforcement officials say helps them fight gang activity, but that critics say encourages racial profiling and criminalizing normal social interactions.

When the supervisor reviewed body camera footage and car recordings, they did not match the documentation completed by an officer, according to the department. Over the following months, the investigation grew to encompass more than a dozen officers in the elite metro division who were suspected of misrepresenting information in field interview cards, the Police Department said.