News & Commentary

Almost half of the police departments in the state that are required to post online their police complaint forms and procedures have failed to do so, according to a report released today by the Rhode Island ACLU. The requirement, contained in the Racial Profiling Prevention Act of 2004, was designed to make it easier for victims of police misconduct to file complaints with departments.

The Rhode Island ACLU has called on the Board of Governors for Higher Education to amend its financial aid policies to prevent harm to students adversely affected by the General Assembly’s adoption of a new law in June (known as “Article 22”) that treats all 17-year-olds as adults for criminal justice purposes. In a letter to the Board, the ACLU pointed out that “little attention has been paid to the direct impact that Article 22 may have on the educational rights of some students.”

The ACLU of Rhode Island today filed an “open records” lawsuit against the Providence Police Department, challenging its refusal to turn over any documents relating to police use of video camera surveillance in public places. The suit, filed in R.I. Superior Court by ACLU volunteer attorney Staci Kolb, seeks a court order requiring release of the records, and the imposition of fines and an award of attorneys fees against the Department. The lawsuit comes exactly one week after the ACLU issued a report that documented widespread non-compliance with the state’s Access to Public Records Act by government agencies, and particularly by police departments.

The R.I. Department of Corrections is holding a public hearing this Monday evening, September 10th on proposed regulations that the R.I. ACLU argues, in submitted testimony, would “allow for a regime of censorship over the news media in their efforts to interview inmates and inform the public.” The proposal under consideration is a significant revision of the DOC’s current rules governing media access.

In response to the death on Tuesday of Edmar Alves Araujo, a Brazilian national who had epilepsy, while in the custody of immigration officials, the ACLU of Rhode Island has today filed an open records request with the Woonsocket Police Department to obtain copies of its policies addressing how the medical needs of individuals in the Department’s custody are handled. The ACLU has also called on the Attorney General to conduct an immediate inventory of other municipal police department policies across the state regarding the provision of medication to detainees who may have emergency medical needs.

In an important victory for the public’s right to know, R.I. Superior Court Judge Gilbert Indeglia today ordered the Central Falls Police Department to release to the ACLU the incident report generated by the fatal shooting last month of city resident Selvin Garrido.

The ACLU of Rhode Island today filed an open records lawsuit against the Central Falls Police Department in order to obtain documents concerning the fatal shooting by police last month of city resident Selvin Garrido, who was killed when police came to his apartment in response to a 911 call. Garrido was shot after allegedly coming at police with a knife in his hand.

In an important victory for religious freedom, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit in Boston has reversed a lower court ruling that allowed the Department of Corrections to bar an inmate from preaching during Christian religious services at the state prison.

The Rhode Island ACLU today called “shocking” the position advanced by Rhode Island College (RIC) in court papers that RIC does not have to abide by the First Amendment – or any other constitutional restriction, for that matter – because it is not a government agency for civil rights purposes.