“Today’s not guilty verdict in the criminal trial of Fullerton police officers Jay Cicinelli and Manuel Ramos, who were charged in the beating death of Kelly Thomas, is disappointing and demonstrates the need for civilian police review boards in Fullerton and elsewhere in Orange County,” said Hector Villagra, executive director of the ACLU of Southern California.

LOS ANGELES - Today the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit held that police and prosecutors violated the Constitution by enforcing a gang injunction against residents of Orange County before giving them a meaningful opportunity to contest the allegation that they were gang members.

Just hours after U.S. citizen Gerardo Gonzalez filed suit on June 19, ICE lifted its erroneous immigration hold on him.

Los Angeles Police Department and the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department withheld data in violation of the California Public Records Act  LOS ANGELES – The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and the American Civil Liberties Union Foundation of Southern California (ACLU/SC) today jointly filed suit against two Los Angeles-area law-enforcement agencies over their failure to produce records related to the use of automatic license plate readers (ALPRs)

Today the ACLU Foundation of Southern California (ACLU/SC) sent a letter to the Anaheim City Council it to establish a Civilian Police Review Board to promote police accountability and restore community trust in the police force. The letter details the limitations of the current oversight structure for allegations of police misconduct in Anaheim, including a lack of transparency, a lack of impartiality, and an absence of resident involvement.

The ACLU of Southern California, along with several community and civil rights groups, has sent a letter urging the LAPD to suspend its “Suspicious Activity Reporting” (SAR) program until it revises policy to better protect civil liberties. The letter was signed by the ACLU/SC and groups including the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the Sikh American Legal Defense and Education Fund (SALDEF), the South Asian Network (SAN) and the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles (CHIRLA).