News & Commentary

As part of a new anti-surveillance campaign which is designed to defend consumers’ personal privacy rights, the ACLU is asking Rhode Island-based CVS and 20 other leading retail, banking and travel businesses across the country to take a “no-spy pledge” to reject government requests to voluntarily turn over information on customers and their transactions.

The ACLU of Rhode Island today announced that a settlement had been reached in a federal lawsuit it filed two years ago against the Woonsocket Police Department on behalf of a woman who was strip-searched and left naked in a holding cell for over five hours after being arrested for “driving under the influence.” Under the settlement, the defendants agreed to pay $65,000 to plaintiff Joann Lanoue in exchange for dismissal of the suit. The agreement specifies that it does not constitute any acknowledgement of wrongdoing by Woonsocket police officials.

The ACLU of Rhode Island has called upon Providence Mayor David Cicilline and the City Council to reject a proposal, floated this past week to raise revenue for the city, of installing so-called “red light cameras” at various intersections in the city. In a two-page letter to City officials, R.I. ACLU executive director Steven Brown argued that installation of the cameras “raises troubling privacy and due process concerns,” and “erodes, in subtle ways, our basic rights and turns on its head the major rationale for traffic safety laws.” Excerpts from the ACLU’s letter appear below: