News & Commentary

An audit of open government practices in Rhode Island has found that six municipalities and 10 out of 24 surveyed state and quasi-public agencies are seemingly in violation of the Access to Public Records Act (APRA) by failing to certify that they have any employees trained to grant or deny public record requests.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Rhode Island this week urged the Cranston City Council to look more deeply into city police department practices based on police officers' actions in a high-profile criminal case that were once described by a state judge as showing “an overall attitude of gross negligence, if not downright recklessness, in blatant disregard of the requirements of the law.”

In a letter sent to Police Chief Hugh Clements, Jr., the American Civil Liberties of Rhode Island is urging the Providence Police Department to reject immigration detainers issued without judicial oversight now that the state Department of Corrections has ended the practice of detaining individuals based solely on these requests.

The ACLU of Rhode Island today praised Governor Lincoln Chafee for adopting a policy that no longer authorizes holding individuals at the ACI on the basis of questionable immigration detainers.

Nine organizations that pushed for the new law imposing a three-year moratorium on “high stakes testing” as a condition of high school graduation have sent an “urgent request” to state Department of Education Commissioner Deborah Gist, calling on her to ensure that the law is being implemented by school departments.

More than twenty community organizations representing youth, nonviolence, and civil rights have urged Governor Chafee to veto legislation purportedly aimed at “criminal street gangs” that the groups say will likely target at-risk youth.

The ACLU of Rhode Island today applauded the U.S. Supreme Court’s unanimous decision this morning that police generally must seek a warrant before examining the contents of an arrestee’s cell phone. Two years ago, the RI General Assembly overwhelmingly approved a bill that would have essentially codified the principle the Court enunciated today, but Governor Lincoln Chafee vetoed that legislation in a cursory veto message.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Rhode Island has urged Warwick City Council to amend an ordinance barring certain city employees from running for office after a worker faced losing his job if he ran for a seat in the United States Senate.

ACLU of Rhode Island executive director Steven Brown issued the following statement in response to the House of Representatives' approval this afternoon of legislation requiring law enforcement to collect DNA samples from anyone arrested for certain offenses: