Civil Rights Groups Seek Police Records Following Widespread Sweeps in Ceres

California Public Records Act Request Seeking Policies and Procedures Concerning Police Tactics
For Immediate Release: February 10, 2005

SAN FRANCISCO - California Rural Legal Assistance, the ACLU of Northern California, and the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights filed a Public Records Act request today following reports of widespread police sweeps, house searches, and interrogations – reportedly at gunpoint – of Latino youth. The law enforcement actions followed the January 9 killing of a police officer, and the wounding of another, in the town of Ceres in Stanislaus County. The suspect, a Marine and local resident, was killed at the scene and police say he was a member of a Latino gang, the Nortenos.

The police have acknowledged that these operations in Ceres and Modesto have resulted in at least 83 arrests, with 270 homes being searched, 160 vehicle stops, 135 detentions for questioning and 391 people who were contacted for personal information. Most of the law enforcement operations were conducted in the predominantly farm worker community of “El Campo” or “The Camp” and other predominantly Latino neighborhoods in and around South Modesto, where many parents are now fearful of letting their teenage sons go outside.

“We make this request because it appears that law enforcement’s understandable desire to prevent crimes has resulted in unwarranted and repeated violations of the rights of our community,” said Jack Daniel, Directing Attorney, Migrant Farmworkers Project, California Rural Legal Assistance (CRLA).

The civil rights groups are concerned about innocent people being targeted and swept up in the law enforcement operations. In the Public Records Act request that was sent to the Modesto Police Department, the Ceres Police Department, and the Stanislaus County Sheriff’s Department, the groups are requesting copies of documents covering the planning and operational guidelines for these January sweeps, and any policies, procedures or training materials regarding:

• Searches of homes including whether or not consent to search a home is obtained in a fully voluntary and non-coercive manner;
• Vehicular stops including the length and scope of stops based on traffic or equipment violations, the right of individuals to leave once the reason for the stop is addressed, the treatment of passengers not involved in the violation, and the obtaining of consent for searches of vehicles and individuals;
• Display and use of automatic and semi-automatic rifles and the standards for pointing these weapons at individuals and displaying them while seeking entry into homes and during home searches;
• Labeling individuals as gang members or gang associates including criteria used to label individuals, notifications to individuals that were labeled, and procedures for updating or removing incorrect information from these databases.

“The information we are requesting is critical to assessing whether these targeted multi-agency operations are being carried out in accordance with police regulations and constitutional principles,” said ACLU-NC staff counsel Ann Brick. “That is the very purpose of the Public Records Act – to allow people to protect their own civil rights and civil liberties by opening up governmental actions to public scrutiny.”

Robert Rubin, Legal Director for the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights (LCCR) added: “However legitimate law enforcement activity might be, it must not be used as a cover for wholesale targeting of the Latino community. This community already suffers from discrimination in the delivery of critical municipal services and the lack of electoral voting power (which are the subject of two ongoing lawsuits); it should not be forced to confront the indignity of race-based police sweeps.”

The ACLU-NC, CRLA, LCCR and the Stanislaus County ACLU Chapter will continue to monitor the situation. The law enforcement agencies have ten days to respond to the Public Records Act request.