DENVER – The City of Colorado Springs has agreed to pay $212,000 to settle a racial profiling lawsuit brought by the ACLU of Colorado alleging that Ryan and Benjamin Brown were pulled over because of their race, handcuffed, searched, and detained at gun point and taser point, all without legal justification.

Along with monetary compensation, the Colorado Springs Police Department has agreed to several revisions of its policies on stops, searches, and recording officers.

Ryan Brown posted a video of the 2015 stop online, where it has been viewed more than 165,000 times.

“The racial profiling that Ryan and Benjamin Brown endured is still, unfortunately, all too common for young men of color,” said ACLU of Colorado Legal Director Mark Silverstein.  “The difference in this case is that Ryan preserved video evidence of the officers’ aggressive escalation and heavy-handed use of force.  Although the police department initially refused to acknowledge any wrongdoing, city officials ultimately did the right thing by agreeing to fair compensation.”

In March 2015, Ryan and Benjamin Brown were driving just a block away from their home in a predominantly white neighborhood when they were pulled over by Colorado Springs police.  To justify the stop, an officer later claimed that the men had been observed driving slowly through “a high crime area,” terminology that the lawsuit alleged is law enforcement code for “driving while black.”

A taser-wielding officer ordered Benjamin Brown, the driver, out of the car. He was handcuffed, searched without cause, and detained in the back of a police vehicle, even though he had been cooperative, no weapons or contraband were found, and there was no evidence to suggest that he had been involved in a crime.

Ryan Brown then began recording the scene on his phone.  His repeated requests for the officers to identify the reason for the stop were ignored.  Officers worked together to force him out of the car, push him to the ground, face down in the snow, search him, and cuff him, all the while at gunpoint. Officers grabbed his phone, stopped the recording, and threw it in the snow.

Brown filed a complaint with CSPD following the incident.  He received a brief boilerplate letter in June 2015 informing him that the Department had conducted a “complete and thorough” investigation into the incident and concluded that the officers’ conduct was “justified, legal, and proper.”

In October 2016, the ACLU of Colorado filed the lawsuit in federal court, which began nearly 6 months of negotiation between the parties around policy changes and compensation.

“I knew that what happened to my brother and me was wrong, and that I needed to speak up,” said Brown.  “I am grateful to the ACLU of Colorado for holding the police accountable, for standing up for our rights, and for winning policy changes that will hopefully prevent others from having their rights violated.”

Multiple Colorado Springs Police Department (CSPD) policies have been improved as a result of the settlement.  Official CSPD policy now clearly identifies the constitutional requirements that must be met before an officer may conduct a pat-down search.  CSPD removed policy language that gave undue weight to an individual’s refusal to cooperate as a factor in establishing probable cause for a search or arrest. CSPD policy on recording police was also strengthened to reflect constitutional and statutory protections against unjustified seizures of electronic devices.

Colorado Springs will make available online all of the changes to its policies as a result of the settlement by July 1, 2017. The Chief of Police has also agreed to meet in person with Ryan and Benjamin Brown to discuss the incident.

Ryan and Benjamin Brown were represented by Silverstein and ACLU of Colorado Staff Attorney Sara Neel, as well as cooperating attorneys Darold Killmer and Andy McNulty of Killmer, Lane & Newman, LLP.

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Thursday, April 20, 2017 - 10:15am

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DENVER — ACLU affiliates in Colorado, Idaho, Oregon, Wyoming and Alaska filed a joint Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit today demanding government documents from their regional U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) office about the on-the-ground implementation of President Trump’s Muslim bans.
Today’s action is part of a total of 13 FOIA lawsuits filed by ACLU affiliates across the country.  Each suit seeks unique and local information regarding how CBP implemented the executive orders at specific airports and ports of entry in the midst of rapidly developing and sometimes conflicting government guidance.
“President Trump’s unconstitutional and un-American Muslim bans created chaos, confusion, and hardship across the country,” said ACLU of Colorado Legal Director Mark Silverstein. “As a public agency, CBP has an obligation to respond to open records requests and to disclose information to the public about the guidance and training that its agents receive.”
The ACLU first sought this information through FOIA requests submitted to CBP on February 2. Since the government has failed to substantively respond, the ACLU is now suing.
“CBP has a long history of ignoring its obligations under the federal Freedom of Information Act — a law that was enacted to ensure that Americans have timely access to information of pressing public concern. The public has a right to know how federal immigration officials have handled the implementation of the Muslim bans, especially after multiple federal courts have blocked various aspects of these executive orders,” said Mitra Ebadolahi, Border Litigation Project Staff Attorney with the ACLU of San Diego and Imperial Counties.
Resources:

Read the complaint: http://static.aclu-co.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/FOIAComplaint.pdf

The release on the original FOIA requests is here:
https://aclu-co.org/aclu-colorado-demands-release-immigration-ban-documents/

More background on CBP’s FOIA practices is here:
https://www.aclu.org/letter/aclu-letter-cbp-re-foia-practices-july-2016

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Wednesday, April 12, 2017 - 1:34pm

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Coalition calls for a new approach based on highly-successful Missouri model

Denver, CO (3/2/17) – Violence in Colorado’s Division of Youth Corrections (DYC) facilities has risen dramatically in recent years, and the common use of punitive measures, including pain compliance, knee strikes, solitary confinement, and a full-body straitjacket called the WRAP have created a culture of violence that is failing Colorado’s troubled youth, according to a new report released today by the Colorado Child Safety Coalition.
Bound and Broken: How DYC’s Culture of Violence is Hurting Colorado’s Kids and What to Do About It includes new findings, photos, case studies, and policy recommendations, including a call for a pilot program in DYC based on the Missouri Approach, a highly-successful model used by several states that has resulted in safer facilities with far fewer assaults against both staff and youth, while maintaining low recidivism rates and high educational outcomes.
Along with the report, the Coalition released a short video (fully accessible version) featuring an interview with Xavier Long, a former DYC resident who has significant mental health needs and, rather than being provided the treatment he desperately needed at DYC, was exposed to violence.  The video contains the first ever publicly released video of a child in the WRAP in DYC.
“Kids incarcerated in Colorado are in crisis. Staff members strike, isolate, and bind children, making DYC facilities unsafe spaces for both staff and youth.  For the sake of Colorado’s kids and staff, it is time to transform DYC’s punitive and broken culture into one of rehabilitation and hope,” said ACLU of Colorado Staff Attorney Rebecca T. Wallace. “There is a clear path forward. The Missouri Approach, the gold standard in providing rehabilitative treatment to incarcerated youth, treats kids like kids. Without force, isolation, or full body restraints, this approach is proven to keep kids and staff safer, while maintaining low recidivism rates and high educational outcomes.  We are calling on DYC and our state legislators to embrace the Missouri Approach, starting with a pilot program to begin this year.  Colorado’s kids can wait no longer.”
The Coalition, which includes the ACLU of Colorado, Disability Law Colorado, the Office of the Colorado State Public Defender, and the Colorado Juvenile Defender Center, interviewed 21 children from 11 of DYC’s 13 state owned facilities and reviewed more than 1,000 internal DYC documents and multiple videos. The report concludes that, despite DYC’s mission of rehabilitation rather than punishment, the culture of DYC is plagued by punitive practices that cause physical and emotional harm to the young people in its care and deter rehabilitation.
In 2016 alone, DYC staff placed youth in solitary confinement 2240 times and used physical restraints more than 3600 times, with over sixty percent of those incidents resulting in the use of mechanical restraints, including handcuffs, leg irons, shackles and/or the WRAP.  Physical punishment methods, including pain compliance and targeted strikes with staff’s knees to sensitive parts of youths’ bodies, caused multiple injuries to young people, including bruises, scratches, rug burns, separated joints, and closed head injuries, according to the report.  The United States Department of Justice has determined pain compliance techniques violate children’s constitutional rights.
“Isolation and physical punishment don’t help at-risk young people turn their lives around,” said Ann Roan, State Training Director for Juvenile Defense and Complex Litigation at the Office of the Colorado State Public Defender.  “If we are serious about investing in Colorado’s troubled kids, changing DYC’s punitive culture is a must.”
Colorado is one of the few juvenile justice systems in the country that uses the WRAP, a full body restraint device that is akin to a straitjacket. In 2016, DYC placed young people in the WRAP at least 253 times. The WRAP was outlawed in Arkansas after the Ombudsman called the device “torture” when used on youth. The report contains the first ever publicly released photo of a child in the WRAP in DYC.
“Despite assurances from top DYC officials that the Division was moving away from the use of pain compliance, isolation and the WRAP, we learned that these punitive practices are still commonly used,” said Mark Ivandick, Managing Attorney of Disability Law Colorado.  “Young people with mental illness and other disabilities are overrepresented in DYC and are disproportionately experiencing these atrocities.  This must stop.  Action must be taken to ensure that DYC’s culture matches its rhetoric of providing trauma-informed, rehabilitative care.  We urge the state legislature to create real change and foster a therapeutic environment by implementing the Missouri Approach.”
Based on the model pioneered by the Missouri Division of Youth Services, the Missouri Approach offers staff better, non-punitive tools to respond to the needs of young people in their care.  Missouri data show that its youth corrections staff is 13 times less likely to be assaulted compared to other states and incarcerated youth in Missouri are 4.5 times less likely to be assaulted and 200 times less likely to be placed in solitary confinement.  As one Missouri youth said to DYC leadership and a member of the Colorado Child Safety Coalition during a recent Missouri Division of Youth Services tour: “The kids in Colorado deserve as good as the kids in Missouri.”
Resources:

Read the Colorado Child Safety Coalition Report: Bound and Broken: How DYC’s Culture of Violence is Hurting Colorado’s Kids and What to Do About It

Watch Bound and Broken: Exposing the culture of violence within the Colorado Division of Youth Corrections: https://youtu.be/55fScl3jXdA

Fully accessible version: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fai-KmgLTV8&feature=youtu.be

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Thursday, March 2, 2017 - 10:19am

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