What to Do If You Get Pulled Over by a Cop

This case presents two questions: first, whether, under the Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and Article I, section 7 of the Tennessee Constitution, Union City Police Department officers possessed probable cause to conduct a warrantless search of the defendant’s vehicle based exclusively on the alleged odor of cannabis, and second, whether the Court of Appeals had jurisdiction to overturn the defendant’s conviction. The ACLU’s Criminal Reform Legal Project and State Supreme Court Initiative, along with the ACLU of Tennessee filed an amicus brief arguing first, that after Tennessee’s legalization of hemp in 2019, an officer’s alleged detection of the odor of cannabis is insufficient to establish probable cause to conduct a warrantless search of a vehicle in Tennessee, and second, that the court of appeals improperly held that it lacked jurisdiction to overturn the defendant’s conviction.

As Donald Trump tries to limit efforts to combat police brutality, the ACLU’s Seven States Safety Campaign shows how communities are stepping up to demand justice.

WASHINGTON – The American Civil Liberties Union and local partners launched the Seven States Safety Campaign today, filing coordinated public records requests to uncover police misconduct in seven states where the U.S. Department of Justice under former President Biden found police engaged in unconstitutional and racially discriminatory policing. The demands are being filed in Tennessee, Massachusetts, New York, Arizona, Mississippi, Minnesota, and Kentucky – states where federal civil rights investigations and reports confirmed widespread patterns of police abuse. The Trump administration has pledged to halt federal oversight and has begun reversing course, including by rescinding near-final agreements in Minneapolis and Louisville and retracting findings in Arizona, New Jersey, Tennessee, New York, Oklahoma, and Louisiana. “The DOJ under Biden found police were wantonly assaulting people and that it wasn’t a problem of ‘bad apples’ but of avoidable, department-wide failures,” said Jenn Rolnick Borchetta, deputy project director on policing at the ACLU. “By turning its back on police abuse, Trump’s DOJ is putting communities at risk, and the ACLU is stepping in because people are not safe when police can ignore their civil rights.” From 2021 to early 2025, the DOJ launched 12 “pattern or practice” investigations into local police departments. In the seven that are the focus of this campaign, investigators found that police routinely used excessive force, targeted people of color, and violated constitutional rights as a matter of practice. Despite these findings, the seven departments continue to operate without binding consent decrees in place to hold them accountable to address these documented civil rights abuses. “While the ACLU of Minnesota is deeply disappointed in the DOJ’s decision to back out of this consent decree five years after the murder of George Floyd, this decision does not mean that the Minneapolis Police Department will be free to violate the rights of Minnesotans with impunity” said Deepinder Mayell, executive director of the ACLU of Minnesota. “The city must still abide by the state-level consent decree. MPD is also on notice that their officers engaged in unconstitutional policing for years, which makes it easier to hold the MPD liable for any future violations down the road. Now is the time to follow through: not just with promises, but with real action to fix what is so clearly broken.” The DOJ relied on thousands of police records, thousands of hours of police videos, and interviews with police personnel throughout each department to develop their reports. The findings include: In Memphis, TN, police punched and kicked people who were handcuffed or otherwise already restrained. In Louisville, KY, police deployed K-9 units on people who were compliant, including a 14-year-old child. In Lexington, MS, officers tasered a man until he vomited and could not walk. In Phoenix, AZ, police shot tasers and firearms at people who were already incapacitated. In Minneapolis, MN, officers routinely used neck restraints, one so severe it caused a man to lose consciousness. In Mount Vernon, NY, and Worcester, MA, police strip-searched people and sexually assaulted women under threat of arrest. Many of the DOJ’s investigations were spurred by community demands following high-profile police killings, including George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Tyre Nichols. As the federal government retreats from oversight, communities are once again stepping up to demand transparency and justice, partnering with the ACLU in this campaign. Additional comments from community partners are below. Cardell Orrin, executive director of Stand for Children Tennessee, had the following statement: “The DOJ’s findings confirmed what Memphis communities have said for years: MPD’s abuse, excessive force, and lack of accountability are systemic, not isolated. While city leaders keep chasing an arbitrary ‘magic number’ of police, they’ve failed to invest enough in additional support to keep communities safe. The DOJ showed us the critical role access to information plays in accountability, so that our police truly value and respect the lives of all the people in our community. The additional information uncovered through this records request will give us and our local partners, like the Justice & Safety Alliance, stronger tools to push for the real policy changes and investments Memphis needs.” Ben Laughlin, co-director of Poder in Action, Phoenix, had the following statement: “The Department of Justice report released in 2024 confirmed what we all knew: Phoenix police routinely violate the rights of the very people they are sworn to protect. Despite a long history of perpetrating violence and abuse against our communities, the City of Phoenix has dodged accountability every step of the way. Obtaining public records from the Phoenix Police Department is an essential step towards accountability, for the public to know what the police are doing in the name of 'public safety' and with our tax dollars."

Coalition on Homelessness is a challenge to the City and County of San Francisco’s efforts to criminalize homelessness through an array of unconstitutional practices, including confiscating and destroying the personal property of unhoused people without adequate notice or due process, and citing and arresting unhoused people for sleeping in public.