ACLU: American Civil Liberties Union of Ohio
Keeping America Safe and Free
Criminal Justice Voting Rights Immigrant Rights LGBT Rights Juvenile Justice All Issues
RSS Feeds
Join Now (raise public awareness)
Donate Now (make a tax deductible gift)
Calendar (see a full list of events)
Email Alert (get information on the issues)
Save the Date!
ACLU Statewide Conference
July 28, 2012 Your Voice! Your Power! 2012

Click here for highlights from the 2010 Conference

Police Practices

Updated 05.06.11 Good police practices, thorough training, carefully crafted policies, appropriate allocation of resources, and strong political and professional leadership can ensure public safety and prevent abuses in encounters between police officers and citizens.


What's happening in Ohio


Racially Biased Policing and Excessive Use of Force in Cleveland
The Cleveland Police Department has recently been criticized for several officers’ prolific use of non-deadly force and for failing to review incident reports fully. This criticism after two officers were charged with assault for beating a man during an arrest.

In addition, the ACLU of Ohio is concerned the Cleveland Police Department may employ some racially biases policing methods. A June 2011 report, "Overcharging, Overspending, Overlooking: Cuyahoga County's Costly War on Drugs", describes the targeting of African American communities for patrols and sweeps, resulting in disproportionate rates of arrest and incarceration for people of color.

The ACLU of Ohio also represented two Clevelanders who were victims of racially biased policing in July 2010 in City of Cleveland v. Alvin Williams and City of Cleveland v. Chanel Christian. As a result of the incident, the Mayor agreed to permit federal mediators to provide training to business owners and police to avoid any similar incidents. For more details about this case, visit our legal docket.


Use of Technology to Profile
Police departments around the state have begun to use web sites like Facebook and MySpace to monitor people’s online profiles and identify individuals whom they believe engage in illegal activities.

Unfortunately, many innocent individuals are wrongfully identified as criminals because police have relied only on flawed profiling techniques rather than generating clear evidence that the person is engaged in illegal activity.


Local Enforcement of Federal Immigration Laws
The Ohio General Assembly is considering Senate Bill 98, which would allow local police to enforce immigration laws. The ACLU of Ohio opposes such efforts because they encourage racial profiling and causes resources to be diverted from dealing with local crime. More information is available on our Immigrant Rights page.


Resources

Visit our Drug Policy, Juvenile Justice, Criminal Justice, Immigrant Rights, and Racial Justice issues pages for more information about our justice system.

Check out our Publications page for more resources on your rights during a police encounter.

Anatomy of an Injustice: A Lawyer’s Perspective on the Brandon McCloud Shooting, Scene Magazine, 2009

Electronic Frontier Foundation Social Networks Monitoring Project, Research into law enforcement’s use of social media

Read news releases and articles on police practices in our News Center.

Browse our webcasts for police practice-related programs:
Audio webcasts
Video webcasts