News & Commentary

The American Civil Liberties Union of Rhode Island and the R.I. Disability Law Center today announced the favorable settlement of a federal civil rights lawsuit on behalf of a profoundly deaf person who was not provided an interpreter to allow him to communicate after he was arrested and detained overnight in jail by Woonsocket police for allegedly making an obscene gesture. The groups expressed hope that the settlement, which addresses important issues regarding municipal agency obligations to accommodate people who are deaf or hard of hearing, will serve as a model for police departments across the state.

The ACLU of Rhode Island and the Rhode Island Patient Advocacy Coalition today sharply criticized the state Department of Health for adopting new regulations governing the medical marijuana program that the groups say will greatly harm patients’ access to the program. If not revisited by the Department, the groups said they would seek legislative intervention to overturn the rules.

The ACLU of Rhode Island has called on the Providence City Council to reject the proposed expenditure of hundreds of thousands of tax dollars to purchase police body cameras unless and until clear, strong standards of transparency and accountability are in place for their use.

ACLU STATEMENT ON REFUSAL OF DEPT. OF BUSINESS REGULATION TO RELEASE INFORMATION ON APPROVED MEDICAL MARIJUANA CULTIVATORS

The ACLU of Rhode Island testified today against various provisions of proposed regulations governing the state's medical marijuana program that could impose new burdens on  patients and their certifying physicians. A hearing on the regulations, 99 pages long and proposed by the state Department of Health (DOH) and Department of Business Regulation (DBR), drew a large crowd and much testimony.

According to a national report released by the ACLU and Human Rights Watch, blacks in Rhode Island were arrested for drug possession at almost three times the rate of whites in 2014. That rate was higher than the national average, which shows blacks being arrested at about two-and-a-half times the rates of whites. This major disparity at both the state and national level exists even though national studies repeatedly show that blacks and whites generally use drugs at roughly similar rates.

The ACLU of Rhode Island today issued the following statement in response to the Providence Police Department’s plans to acquire force-wide body cameras: “While body cameras can benefit the public and law enforcement by bringing much-needed transparency to policing, the policy we understand is currently in use by the Providence Police Department will serve only to shroud body camera footage in secrecy and raise serious questions as to the discretion used by law enforcement in activating the cameras. These questions must be resolved before the start of any widespread body camera program. “Under this policy, police have broad discretion in when to turn the cameras on and off, allowing for law enforcement to choose to turn body cameras on after an incident has commenced and the body cameras can no longer shed much-needed light on a situation. Beyond immediate officer safety concerns, any subjectivity in decisions to turn body cameras on or off raises concerns about what is not being captured by cameras, and why. While the policy encompasses many of the instances in which a body camera should be activated, unintentional gaps in the ‘Body Worn Camera Activation Parameters’ leave law enforcement open to allegations of subjective body camera use and may fail to capture many of the instances in which body cameras may be most helpful. “Further, the policy lacks clear guidance as to the release of body camera footage. Particularly in light of recent events in Charlotte, North Carolina and the controversy surrounding release of footage in other municipalities using body cameras, it is imperative that any body camera policy clearly allow for the release of footage to the public, without delay. The greatest benefit of body cameras to the public is that of transparency in policing – a benefit that is denied to the public if the Providence Police Department can choose to deny access to these videos. “The ACLU of Rhode Island calls on the Providence Police Department to publicly promulgate a new policy for the use of body cameras, with these concerns taken into account.”

The ACLU of Rhode Island today celebrated the signing by Governor Gina Raimondo of crucial privacy legislation requiring law enforcement to obtain a warrant before accessing cell phone location information, except in certain emergency circumstances.

When the sun rose and the gavel came down at 6am on Saturday morning, June 18th, the ACLU of Rhode Island was still at the State House, monitoring important civil liberties legislation until the very last moments of the session. We will provide a more detailed review of the legislative session, along with a 2015-2016 voting scorecard, in our next newsletter (look for it in August), and you can check out an expanded list of some of the legislation we monitored last year here. For now, here are some of the highlights - and the lows - of the 2016 General Assembly session.