Journalist group president calls for stop to arrests of journalists at Occupy sites

The president of the Society of Professional Journalists called for the end of the “alarming trend” of the arrests of journalists at Occupy demonstrations. John C. Ensslin said he covered the crime beat and that his brother was a police officer and so that he understands the difficult situations confonting police. He proposes that both [...]

A&A: Police refuse request for incident report from peaceful protest

Q: In August 2010 myself and three others were passing out Christian prolife materials to clients approaching a Planned Parenthood (PP) clinic. The PP is located in a public commercial strip mall and shares a common parking lot with the other businesses. A private security official threatened us with arrest if we did not move [...]

A&A:I couldn’t video tape my own arrest, but a reality show was allowed

Q: Fish & Game “wardens” recently arrested me near a remote campground where I had been sitting in my car trying to sleep. My blood alcohol level was .11 and I was charged with a DUI. During the arrest, a reality TV show camera crew tagging along with the wardens filmed the whole event–including that [...]

ACLU files public records requests on cell phone tracking by law enforcement

Affiliates of the American Civil Liberties Union filed 379 public records requests in 31 states to find out how local law enforcement agencies are using cell phone location to track citizens. Writing for the ACLU, Allie Bohn says that laws don’t always keep up with technology and civil liberties suffer, “…while we believe that law [...]

A&A: Police claims officer ‘use of force’ reports personnel not public issue

Q: We are a police monitoring and accountability organization. For awhile we have been concerned about police use of force; where it is occurring and under what circumstances, and which officers are involved. We have twice asked for this information from the Police Department. Once, for several years worth of reports, which were denied to [...]

Free speech: Police officer gets desk duty over indiscreet posting on Facebook

Free speech rights of police officers in the social media are clashing with their law enforcement responsibilities as illustrated by a recent case in Albuquerque where a police officer listed his occupation on Facebook as “human waste disposal.” A TV station discovered the gaffe after the officer was involved in a fatal off-duty shooting in February. In [...]

A&A: Can police remove lawn sign protesting police brutality?

Q: I have been retaliated against for complaining about a police officer beating and raping me. Many crimes were committed by cops in the cover-up, but I have been completely silenced. I put up a sign in my front yard and got an instant response by police. I need to know if they have any [...]

A&A: Online arrest records no longer show violations

Q: I have received conflicting information from public records experts and police public information officers on what law enforcement agencies have to release relating to arrest history. So, let me ask you directly, if I submit a request to a police department in California that asks if John Doe, DOB 1/1/60, has ever been arrested [...]