NEWARK – The American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey (ACLU-NJ) is monitoring several pieces of legislation that are before the New Jersey Legislature today.

The following statements are from Udi Ofer, executive director of the ACLU of New Jersey, about those bills.

Reporting Requirements for Counter-Terrorism Investigations (Senate Bill No. 2311)

"For years, the NYPD conducted secret intelligence gathering activities in New Jersey targeted at Muslim community members who engaged in no wrongdoing. The New Jersey public was kept in the dark during these investigations, which targeted New Jersey residents based on their religious beliefs. Senate Bill No. 2311 will ensure that the NYPD and other law enforcement agencies will be unable to conduct their operations in our state without informing New Jersey law enforcement officials of their activities. While such a step is welcomed, it will not in-and-of-itself address the problem of NYPD operations in our state. At the very least, any bill that passes the state legislature should also include a requirement that the public be kept informed, in a manner that protects the integrity of legitimate law enforcement investigations, of any NYPD and other intelligence gathering operations in our state, particularly those operations that implicate First Amendment rights."

Tuition Equality Act (Assembly Bill No. 4225)

"The ACLU-NJ strongly supports the Tuition Equality Act. The time has come for New Jersey to end its unequal treatment of undocumented immigrants seeking to enroll in New Jersey’s colleges and universities. More than three decades ago, the United States Supreme Court, in Plyler v. Doe, held that undocumented students must be given equal access to a public school education. Yet in New Jersey today, undocumented students who graduate from our high schools and wish to attend our state colleges or universities are forced to pay much higher rates – in some cases more than twice as much – than their classmates for no other reason than their status as undocumented immigrants. This form of unequal access and unequal treatment must end. The New Jersey Legislature should ensure equal access to all students who call our state home, regardless of their immigration status, and pass A-4225."

Drone Regulation (Senate Bill No. 2702)

"The ACLU-NJ supports the establishment of standards to regulate law enforcement's use of unmanned aerial vehicles, also known as drones. Drone technology is growing by leaps and bounds, yet there are no meaningful rules in place to regulate drone activities. Senate Bill No. 2702 will ensure that law enforcement agencies in New Jersey use drones only for legitimate law enforcement purposes. We support the bill's passage. We also believe that the public must be kept continuously informed of drone activities in our state, and that any drone legislation should also include a public reporting requirement on the use of drones in our state. The ACLU-NJ has filed public records requests with 15 law enforcement agencies in New Jersey for information regarding the purchase and use of drones, but it should not take an official records request and potential litigation for the public to be informed about the use of drones in our state."

Militarization of Local Law Enforcement Erodes Civil Liberties, Encourages Overly Aggressive Policing

Newark, NJ – The American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey (ACLU-NJ) and ACLU affiliates in 23 other states today simultaneously filed public records requests to determine the extent to which local police departments are using federally subsidized military technology and tactics that are traditionally used in American military settings overseas.

“Equipping state and local law enforcement with military weapons and vehicles, military tactical training, and actual military assistance to conduct traditional law enforcement erodes civil liberties and encourages increasingly aggressive policing, particularly in poor neighborhoods and communities of color,” said Kara Dansky, senior counsel for ACLU’s Center for Justice. “We’ve seen examples of this in several localities, but we don’t know the dimensions of the problem.”

The ACLU of New Jersey filed two public records requests. The first request, filed with 16 local law enforcement agencies, seeks information on the use of:

• SWAT (Special Weapons and Tactics) Teams, including:
  • Number and purpose of deployments
  • Types of weapons used during deployments
  • Injuries sustained by civilians during deployments
  • Funding sources
• Cutting-edge weapons and technologies, including:
  • GPS tracking devices
  • Unmanned aerial vehicles (“drones”)
  • Augmented detainee restraint (“shock-cuffs”)
  • Military weaponry, equipment, and vehicles obtained from or funded by federal agencies such as the Departments of Defense and/or Homeland Security

The first request was filed with the following agencies:

• New Jersey State Police
• New Jersey Transit
• Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office
• Passaic County Prosecutor’s Office
• Passaic County Sheriff’s Office
• Essex County Prosecutor’s Office
• Warren County Prosecutor’s Office
• Gloucester County Prosecutor’s Office
• Middlesex County Prosecutor’s Office
• Burlington County Prosecutor’s Office
• Atlantic County Prosecutor’s Office
• City of Newark
• Jersey City
• City of Camden
• Atlantic City

The second request, filed with the state Department of Military and Veterans Affairs to obtain information about the New Jersey National Guard, seeks information regarding:

• Cooperative agreements between local police departments and the National Guard counter-drug program
• Incidents of National Guard contact with civilians

“New Jerseyans deserve to know how much our local police are using military weapons and tactics for everyday policing,” said Jeanne LoCicero, ACLU-NJ Deputy Legal Director. “The militarization of local police is a threat to Americans’ right to live without fear of military-style intervention in our daily lives, and we need to make sure these resources and tactics are deployed only with rigorous oversight and strong legal protections.”

Affiliates from Arizona, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Missouri, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, New Jersey, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Texas, Utah, West Virginia, and Washington filed the public records requests. Once the information has been collected and analyzed, if needed, the ACLU will use the results to recommend changes in law and policy governing the use of military tactics and technology in local law enforcement.

For more information, visit www.aclu.org/militarization

NEWARK – Udi Ofer, the executive director of the ACLU of New Jersey, welcomes the decision by Mayor Cory Booker to create a civilian complaint review board in Newark. Booker is expected to formally announce the plan at the “State of the City” address this evening.

“The ACLU-NJ is encouraged that Newark is considering a civilian complaint review board," said Ofer. “An effective civilian review board must have independent subpoena authority, the ability to discipline police officers who are found to engage in misconduct (after having been afforded a fair opportunity to contest the finding), a budget that is adequate to provide for effective investigations and that grows as the police force grows, a process that is open to the public, and a membership that is composed of individuals who have expertise in police practices and civil rights law.

“In other words, an effective civilian review board must have real power, real transparency, and real funding to be able to provide for real accountability,” Ofer said. “We look forward to working with Mayor Booker, the City Council, and Police Director DeMaio to bring the best model to Newark.”

AG’s office takes significant steps to improve practices in response to report

NEWARK – The average citizen filing an internal affairs complaint against a local police officer over the phone in New Jersey will most likely encounter hostility, misinformation or other obstacles from local law enforcement employees, according to a report released today by the American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey (ACLU-NJ).

The report, “The Crisis Continues Inside Police Internal Affairs,” summarizes the responses that 497 departments in New Jersey provided to ACLU-NJ volunteers who called inquiring about how to file a complaint. The study revealed that more than three-quarters of police departments were unable to provide answers or provided wrong answers regarding the basic rules surrounding access to internal affairs.

“When citizens are given wrong information or are dissuaded from filing internal affairs complaints with a police department, it gives them no faith that the same department will conduct thorough and fair investigations into allegations of officer misconduct,” said ACLU-NJ Policy Counsel Alexander Shalom, the primary author of the report. “And it is hard for citizens to have faith in police departments that cannot police themselves.”

In response to receiving an early draft of this report, the state Attorney General’s office proposed several important initiatives. The AG’s office has proposed an online training course teaching law enforcement best practices regarding IA and a quick reference guide for employees to keep by the phone when responding to IA inquiries.

“The ACLU-NJ applauds the steps taken by the Attorney General in response to our report, as they will help to ensure citizens have access to the internal affairs process,” said ACLU-NJ Legal Director Ed Barocas. “Municipal police departments must now follow the Attorney General’s lead.”

Several county prosecutors have contacted the ACLU-NJ to express their concern with the study’s results and are recommitting efforts to ensure that citizens can file internal affairs complaints without unlawful hurdles at police departments within their counties.

To gather the data, ACLU-NJ volunteers called 497 local and specialized departments statewide. The volunteers made it clear that they were not filing a complaint themselves, but seeking information on whether they could file a complaint anonymously, by phone, as a juvenile without a parent present or as a third-party. They also asked if immigration officials would be contacted if an undocumented person wanted to file a complaint. New Jersey allows for complaints to be filed under any of those conditions.

However, more than half of the departments the volunteers made contact with provided at least one incorrect answer to the questions. Many of the volunteers reported they would have given up had they been seeking information to file a complaint themselves. In one instance, an officer in a Hudson County police department stopped speaking and refused to answer basic questions because the volunteer would not give his name. In another instance, an officer in a Middlesex County police department said if the complainant is an “illegal alien, I don’t know if he should be running around making complaints.” Audio clips of 20 responses from police are embedded in the report, which is available on the ACLU-NJ’s website, www.aclu-nj.org

Only three counties – Cumberland, Morris and Salem – had a majority of their departments provide correct answers, as well as New Jersey Transit Police, which earned a perfect score. One officer in a Morris County police department embraced the spirit of the state’s IA laws concerning immigration when he said, “If there is a language barrier, we will make accommodations to hear [his complaint] in his native language.”

In 2009, the ACLU-NJ issued a similar report, which also concluded that most departments in New Jersey violated the law when accepting complaints from citizens. Following that study, some departments reached out to the ACLU-NJ to discuss the results, hoping to provide better training to their staff. The departments the ACLU-NJ spoke to following the 2009 study did better as a group in this round of research than those who did not reach out for help.

The ACLU-NJ recognized then, as it does now, that the problems lie mainly in the police personnel who interact with the public most often. Although they are responsible for providing information about IA complaints, many do not know the correct IA policies.

Therefore, in addition to the recent steps the OAG has taken, the ACLU-NJ also recommends the OAG mandate procedures for police departments to provide the public with information about filing IA complaints, automate department phone directories to provide clear information about how to file IA complaints, and regularly subject themselves to tests that make sure they comply with the law.

The ACLU-NJ has produced a roll call training video educating police departments about the best way to respond to IA complaints and issued a quick reference guide for police departments to keep by their phones to help employees respond properly to IA inquiries.

Related Content

• The Report: The Crisis Continues Inside Police Internal Affairs (1mb PDF)
• Internal Affairs Audio Clips
• See Which Towns Scored Perfectly (120k PDF)
• 2009 Report: The Crisis Inside Police Internal Affairs (1.2mb PDF)
• Internal Affairs Roll Call Training Video

Newark will train officers on new policy that affirms citizens’ rights to videotape officers on duty

NEWARK – The American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey (ACLU-NJ), Seton Hall Law School’s Center for Social Justice (CSJ) and the City of Newark have reached a successful settlement in the case of Khaliah Fitchette, a Newark teenager who was illegally detained by police for using her cellphone to record an incident on a public bus in March 2010.

In addition to the settlement, Police Director Samuel A. DeMaio has issued a training memorandum that affirms the rights of citizens to record police officers performing their duties and makes clear that officers cannot confiscate, delete, or demand to view a citizen’s photos or video without a warrant. The memorandum was issued in November 2011, as Fitchette’s lawsuit was pending.

The department will train officers on the new policy.

“We are pleased that the Newark Police Department has adopted a policy that clearly articulates and respects the constitutional rights of citizens to record police activity,” said Seton Hall Law Professor Barbara Moses, who, along with a number of Seton Hall Law students, represented Fitchette as a cooperating attorney for the ACLU-NJ. “We hope this policy prevents incidents like the one involving Khaliah Fitchette from ever happening again.”

Alexander Shalom, Policy Counsel for the ACLU-NJ, said other departments should follow Newark’s lead.

“With video technology so prevalent now, police officers have to clearly understand exactly what rights citizens have when they film in public,” said Shalom. “Newark’s policy makes clear distinctions about citizens’ rights, and every law enforcement department in New Jersey should adopt these kinds of guidelines.”

Fitchette, who was a high school honors student when she was arrested by police, said she hopes her case educates the public about their rights when it comes to recording police.

“I’m glad this is resolved and I can put this behind me,” said Fitchette, who is now a sophomore at Cornell University. “It’s important for everyone to know their rights, especially since most people now have cellphones with video capabilities.”

Fitchette was riding a public bus through downtown Newark after school on the afternoon of March 22, 2010. When the bus rolled down a hill, a seemingly intoxicated man fell from his seat and into the aisle, creating a scene. The driver pulled over and called Newark Police for assistance. Fitchette, who habitually used her phone to record or take photographs, began recording the incident. When the police arrived, an officer ordered Fitchette to stop recording and turn off the phone.

Fitchette stopped recording, but refused to turn off the phone to avoid missing any calls from her mom. The officer grabbed Fitchette by the arm and pulled her off the bus. One officer seized her phone and deleted the video. The police handcuffed and detained Fitchette for more than an hour, ignoring her pleas to call her mother. They finally dropped a tearful Fitchette at her mother’s workplace.

The ACLU-NJ and CSJ filed a lawsuit on Fitchette’s behalf on March 28, 2010, alleging the officers violated her constitutional rights to free expression. The lawsuit also alleged the search and seizure of Fitchette’s phone was illegal.

Recognizing the importance of taping police officers in public, the ACLU has challenged illegal police confiscations of cameras, which has become more prevalent across the country, including in New Jersey.

In July, the ACLU-NJ released a new smartphone application, “Police Tape,” which allows people to record and store interactions with police securely and discreetly. The app is available for free on Androids and iPhones.

Related Content

• Newark Police Department Training Memorandum
• Video: The ACLU-NJ on Newark's New Video Recording Policy

‘Police Tape’ app for recording law enforcement encounters now available for both Apple and Android devices

NEWARK – New Jersey residents with Apple devices can now hold police accountable in the palms of their hands, with a newly released Apple version of “Police Tape,” a smartphone application from the ACLU of New Jersey. A version for Android was released in July. Police Tape allows people to securely and discreetly record and store interactions with police, as well as better understand their rights during police interactions. Thanks to the generosity of app developer OpenWatch, the ACLU-NJ is providing Police Tape to the public free of charge.

“This app provides an essential tool for police accountability,” said acting ACLU-NJ Executive Director Ed Barocas. “Too often incidents of serious misconduct go unreported because citizens don’t feel that they will be believed. Here, the technology empowers citizens to place a check on police power directly.”

The iOS “Police Tape” app, which works on iPhone and iPad devices, records audio discreetly, disappearing from the screen once the recording begins, which prevents any attempts by police to squelch the recording. In addition to keeping a copy of the audio recording on the phone, the user can choose to send it to the ACLU-NJ for backup storage and analysis of possible civil liberties violations.

More than 35,000 people have downloaded the Police Tape app since it was released in July. The app is intended for use in New Jersey where the law allows citizens to record the actions of police officers in public, even without their knowledge.

The popularity of cellphones with recording capabilities has raised legal questions about the rights of citizens to record in public. Fortunately, the courts have sided with citizens. In May 2012, a federal appeals court struck down an Illinois law that had made it illegal for citizens to record police officers on-duty. Also in May 2012, the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice released a letter affirming the constitutional right to record the police in public. These two developments came on the heels of a landmark ruling in August 2011, which recognized the right of citizens to record police officers after a Massachusetts man in Boston Common was wrongfully arrested for filming an interaction with a police officer.

“In some instances members of the public who challenge authority figures fear that their retelling of events will not be believed,” said ACLU-NJ Policy Counsel Alexander Shalom. “This app helps allay those fears. Firsthand documentation is critical to ensuring police accountability, and it reminds police that the eyes and ears of the public are on them at all times.”

The “Police Tape” app is available for download at http://www.aclu-nj.org/yourrights/the-app-place/. A how-to video created by the ACLU-NJ shows Lady Liberty as she goes through each step of the app as she records and uploads her own run-in with police. The New York Civil Liberties Union released a similar, New York City-specific app to target “stop and frisk” searches by the New York Police Department in early June.

Related Content

• Download Police Tape now!
• Lady Liberty's run-in with the police

Android app allows citizens to record and store video and audio of police encounters, includes guide to citizens’ rights

NEWARK – Citizens can hold police accountable in the palms of their hands with “Police Tape,” a smartphone application from the ACLU of New Jersey that allows people to securely and discreetly record and store interactions with police, as well as provide legal information about citizens’ rights when interacting with the police. Thanks to the generosity of app developer OpenWatch, the ACLU-NJ is providing Police Tape to the public free of charge.

“This app provides an essential tool for police accountability,” said ACLU-NJ Executive Director Deborah Jacobs. “Too often incidents of serious misconduct go unreported because citizens don’t feel that they will be believed. Here, the technology empowers citizens to place a check on police power directly.” In light of the frequency of altercations between citizens and seasonal police at the shore, the ACLU-NJ released the App in time for the July 4th holiday.

The Android “Police Tape” app records video and audio discreetly, disappearing from the screen once the recording begins to prevent any attempt by police to squelch the recording. In addition to keeping a copy on the phone itself, the user can choose to send it to the ACLU-NJ for backup storage and analysis of possible civil liberties violations.

A version awaiting approval from Apple will be available later this summer in the App Store for iOs to audio record encounters with police.

The popularity of cellphones with video capabilities has raised legal questions about the rights of citizens to record in public. Fortunately, the courts have sided with citizens. In May 2012, a federal appeals court struck down an Illinois law that had made it illegal for citizens to record police officers on-duty. Also in May 2012, the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice released a letter affirming the constitutional rights to record the police in public. These two developments came on the heels of a landmark ruling in August 2011, which recognized the right of citizens to record police officers after a Massachusetts man in Boston Common was wrongfully arrested for filming an interaction with a police officer.

“Historically, vivid images of police mistreating citizens have seared our public consciousness and in some cases spurred important changes,” said ACLU-NJ Policy Counsel Alexander Shalom. “Photos and video are critical to ensuring police accountability and police should know that the eyes of the public are on them at all times.”

The “Police Tape” app is available for download at http://www.aclu-nj.org/yourrights/the-app-place/. A how-to video created by the ACLU-NJ shows Lady Liberty as she goes through each step of the app as she records and uploads her own run-in with police. The New York Civil Liberties Union released a similar, New York City-specific app to target “stop and frisk” searches by the New York Police Department in early June.

Related Content

• Download Police Tape now!
• Lady Liberty's run-in with the police