Home : Police Practices

ACLU of Northern CA Challenges Mass Round-Up of High School Students for "Gang Database" (01/30/2003)
SAN FRANCISCO - The American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California filed a class-action lawsuit today challenging the unlawful round-up, detention and search of approximately 60 students whose names and photographs were then entered into a "gang database" maintained by the police.

ACLU of Louisiana Raises Constitutional Concerns in Police Use of DNA Dragnets to Hunt Serial Killer (01/15/2003)
NEW ORLEANS -- The American Civil Liberties Union of Louisiana today urged local law enforcement officials to focus on credible evidence and suspicion in their search for a serial killer, rather than continuing a DNA dragnet that has already netted samples from 800 white men in the Baton Rouge area and another 100 in Lafayette.

ACLU Sues West Virginia Police For Conducting Illegal Drug Stop (12/19/2002)
CHARLESTON, WV - Saying that participants at a political rally were unfairly harassed by law enforcement, the American Civil Liberties Union of West Virginia today filed a lawsuit against two West Virginia law enforcement agencies for operating a roadblock near a drug law reform rally last year.

CO Springs Police Conducted Surveillance for Denver "Spy Files," ACLU Reveals (11/21/2002)
DENVER--The American Civil Liberties Union of Colorado today released documents revealing that the Colorado Springs Police department spied on peaceful critics of government policy and sent its information directly to the Denver Police Department for its controversial "spy files."

ACLU of Georgia Challenges Mass Searches at School of Americas Protest (11/13/2002)
COLUMBUS, GA-The American Civil Liberties Union of Georgia today filed a lawsuit challenging last minute plans by law enforcement officials here to search more than 10,000 marchers at the upcoming School of Americas (SOA) demonstration on Sunday, November 17.

ACLU Charges Racial Discrimination in Second Texas Drug Bust Scandal (11/01/2002)
AUSTIN, TX--The American Civil Liberties Union today filed a class action lawsuit charging racial discrimination in an undercover drug bust that led to the arrest of 15 percent of African-American men between the ages of 18 and 34 in Hearne, a rural community of 5,000 in eastern Texas.

Seattle Police Improve Document Disclosure Policies in Settlement of ACLU Lawsuit (10/29/2002)
SEATTLE--In settlement of a lawsuit brought by the American Civil Liberties Union of Washington, the Seattle Police Department has agreed to improve its policies for handling requests for documents by the public.

Court Finds RI Police in Contempt for Failing to Comply With State's "Driving While Black" Law (10/24/2002)
PROVIDENCE, RI -The American Civil Liberties Union of Rhode Island today hailed a decision by Superior Court Judge Stephen Fortunato, Jr. to hold the police department in contempt of court for failing to comply with the state's "Driving While Black" law.

¿Como se dice Rodney King en Espanol? Posters Promote Reform, Commemorate Texas Victim of Police Brutality (10/15/2002)
HOUSTON-Saying that major reforms are needed to curb the increased incidences of police misconduct and brutality, the American Civil Liberties Union of Texas and other advocacy organizations today unveiled a new poster advertisement meant to commemorate the life of Louis Torres, a Mexican national whose death at the hands of police in the city of Baytown was caught on a police camera.

Following New Evidence of Coerced Confessions, NYCLU Calls on Police to Videotape Interrogations (09/17/2002)
NEW YORK -- In light of recent evidence that police detectives coerced two teenage boys into submitting false confessions in the 1989 attack of a Central Park jogger, the New York Civil Liberties Union today called upon the police department to start videotaping interrogations of serious crime suspects in their custody.

ACLU and Community Groups Ask Court to Reject Proposed Justice Department Changes to Police Abuse Monitoring (09/12/2002)
PITTSBURGH - In preparation for a hearing tomorrow to determine whether Justice Department oversight should be lifted from the troubled Pittsburgh police department, 18 civil rights, community, religious and minority-police-officer organizations have filed a friend-of-the-court brief opposing the proposed changes and asking the court to order increased federal oversight to address serious problems with internal affairs investigations into misconduct allegations.

ACLU Distressed That Justice Department Considering Release of Pittsburgh Police From Consent Decree in Light of Today's Highly Critical Auditor's Report: Statement by Witold Walczak, Executive Director of the ACLU of Pittsburgh (08/29/2002)
PITTSBURGH - One day after Pittsburgh officials announced that the Department of Justice will be releasing the police department from a historic 1997 consent decree that imposed federal oversight on the police bureau, the independent auditor evaluating the City's performance filed a damning report today, saying that City's non-compliance has increased substantially in the past quarter.

Court Auditor Slams Pittsburgh Police for Whitewashing Misconduct Complaints (08/01/2002)
PITTSBURGH- The court-appointed auditor overseeing the police bureau's progress under the first-in-the-nation consent decree with the Department of Justice filed a highly critical report yesterday, suggesting that the City may have deliberately delayed investigating some very serious misconduct complaints, including the strip-search of an infant.