Press Releases

Court Rules Inglewood Police Department Systematically Violated California Public Records Act

Inglewood P.D. required to post police misconduct and use of force records online
Issue Areas: Police Practices

ACLU Statement on LAPD Use of Force on Unhoused People and Their Supporters

LOS ANGELES – People who are unhoused in Echo Park and those who support them were subjected to use of force by the Los Angeles Police Department and city officials who direct it.

LA Hotel Workers Union and Allies Demand Sheriff Villanueva Resign

Los Angeles, CA — Hundreds of community members, led by UNITE HERE Local 11, held a car caravan and delivered a letter demanding the immediate resignation of Sheriff Alex Villanueva because of his failure to reform the Los Angeles Sheriff Department. Sheriff Villanueva’s refusal to cooperate with
Issue Areas: Police Practices

ACLU Sues Pomona Over Refusal to Implement New Police Law

LOS ANGELES — Police officers’ legal authority to kill underwent a key change in California on January 1, when a new law stated that lethal force was justifiable only “when necessary in defense of human life.” But even as officer use of deadly force has become a hugely prominent national issue, many
Issue Areas: Police Practices

ACLU Sues Delano Over Unlawful Police Attack and Arrest of Student

FRESNO — Pablo Simental, Jr. was walking through a residential neighborhood with friends in Delano, California to pick prom passes when an encounter with police led to officers tackling and slamming him to the ground, painfully handcuffing him, and taking him to jail. But Simental, 17 at the time,
Issue Areas: Police Practices

ACLU Sues L.A. Sheriff's Department to Obtain Use-of-Force Records

LOS ANGELES — On January 1, a new law went into effect giving Californians more access to law enforcement officer records than they had in 40 years. The American Civil Liberties Union Foundation of Southern California, one of the key sponsors of the law, immediately sent out requests to nearly 400
Issue Areas: Police Practices

PUSH L.A. Activists Respond to New Report Confirming LAPD's Racial Profiling in Traffic Searches

LOS ANGELES — Today's Los Angeles Times damning report confirms what many city residents know far too well: L.A. Police Department officers target Black and Latinx drivers and passengers in pretextual stops and searches. In response, activists and community members impacted by over-policing will
Issue Areas: Police Practices

LAPD Settles Lawsuit on Access to its Public Records

LOS ANGELES — The Los Angeles Police Department has a long history of defying public records requests that under state law have to get a response within, at most, 24 days. Instead, the LAPD often refused to respond for months or even years. And then it sometimes gave only partial answers or didn't