News & Commentary

For the second time in a year, the ACLU of RI is suing the Pawtucket Police Department for violating their obligations under the state’s Access to Public Records Act (APRA).  Doubling down on their efforts to infringe upon the public’s right to know, the Department has again denied an APRA request for copies of final reports of investigations of alleged police misconduct generated by its Internal Affairs Division (IAD).  The denial comes despite a pending ACLU lawsuit against the Department on virtually identical grounds and despite past RI Supreme Court rulings supporting the public’s access to these types of records.

The ACLU of Rhode Island today wrote to officials at the R.I. Public Transportation Authority to raise concerns about an incident that occurred yesterday when the agency initially sought to ban local journalist Steve Ahlquist from video recording a RIPTA Board meeting.

In an important victory for open government, R.I. Superior Court Judge Melissa Long today ruled that the Attorney General must waive fees for any additional documents that are delivered as part of state Representative Patricia Morgan’s request for information on how the AG’s Office spent more than $50M in Google settlement funds. Citing an inherent public interest in the records, Judge Long also rejected the AG’s argument that records requestors should have to prove financial hardship in order to have fees waived.

The ACLU of Rhode Island today filed a “friend of the court” brief in support of state Representative Patricia Morgan’s request for a waiver of more than $4,000 in fees that the Attorney General is demanding in her quest for documents pertaining to the AG’s expenditure of more than $50M in funds from the “Google settlement.” The brief also asks the court to reject the basis offered by the AG for many redactions in the documents that have already been given to Morgan, who has thus far paid more than $3,700 for partial release of the records.

The ACLU of Rhode Island today issued a critical analysis of the Attorney General’s (AG) response to State Representative Patricia Morgan’s Access to Public Records Act (APRA) request for documents pertaining to the AG’s expenditure of more than $50M in funds from the settlement of a recent Google lawsuit with the State. Representative Morgan has thus far been charged more than $3,700 for partial release of the records, some of which are heavily redacted. The ACLU’s analysis highlights “the clear need for legislation to strengthen the law.”

MAJOR UPDATE 9/24: N. Smithfield Town Council has rescinded the anti-Nike resolution.

It has been more than 72 hours since DaShawn Cole was killed by Pawtucket police, yet very basic information about this tragic incident remains undisclosed.   The names of the officers, how many shots were fired, the threat faced by the police at the time, even whether the victim fired any shots himself -- all of this remains unknown.  We assume – we hope – that this and related information will be released shortly, but the contrast between the belated sharing of information by police during officer-involved shootings and the much more free-flowing disclosure of information when serious civilian-upon-civilian crimes occur remains striking and totally unacceptable. In fact, similar secrecy disconcertingly shrouded the last fatal police shooting in Pawtucket in 2016.(1)

The ACLU of RI today filed a federal lawsuit against the City of Woonsocket for unlawfully withholding critically needed grant funds from Sojourner House, a social service agency that helps victims of domestic violence. Filed by ACLU of RI volunteer attorneys Matthew Oliverio and Stephen Prignano, the lawsuit alleges that the City withheld the funds without cause or due process, and retaliated against the agency after it petitioned other government agencies for help in resolving the dispute over the funds.