May 01, 2012
BART has a serious public relations problem. BART Police have been involved in three fatal shootings of passengers in the past three years, including the Oscar Grant incident in 2009, in which an unarmed African-American New Year's Eve reveler was shot in the back while lying face-down on a BART platform by a white police officer who later testified that he meant to use his taser, not his pistol. The shooting, and the controversial verdict in the criminal trial of the BART police officer, spurred widespread protests.
Apr 25, 2012

The good news is that SB 1434, the important California privacy law that would make sure that police get a warrant before getting access to sensitive location information, passing its first hurdle and is moving onto a full vote by the California Senate.

The bad news is that several California legislators made the wrong call yesterday, selling out the privacy interests of Californians to the wireless and tech industry by removing the bill's important reporting provisions.

For Immediate Release: Apr 24, 2012
Media Contact: press@aclunc.org, (415) 621-2493
Occupy Oakland - police
Today, the American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California (ACLU-NC) and the San Francisco Bay Area Chapter of the National Lawyers Guild demanded that the Oakland Police Department explain if it plans to abandon its Crowd Control Policy, in favor of vague standards that fail to provide specific guidance to officers in the field and that invite a repetition of last fall’s botched handling of Occupy protests. OPD’s Crowd Control Policy provides essential guidance that aims to ensure demonstrators’ rights.
Apr 23, 2012

Information about where you go is valuable

Location data from your cell phone or portable device can make it easy to get directions or locate the closest coffee shop. But that location data also says a lot about you – where you go, what you do, and who you know. And outdated privacy laws, written before GPS and other location-aware technologies even existed, mean that all this personal information isn't being properly protected from prying eyes. Don't pay for location-based services by giving up control of your personal information. Demand a privacy upgrade.

Apr 18, 2012

When we stop spending millions of dollars a year to incarcerate Californians whose only crime is addiction, we will free up funding that can be used to help more people get the treatment they need.

This is the logic behind Senate Bill 1506 (D-Leno), which passed its first hurdle yesterday when it won a majority of votes in the Senate Public Safety Committee. SB 1506 proposes to revise the state's penalty for drug possession for personal use from a felony to a misdemeanor.

Apr 16, 2012
The ACLU, along with several other groups, is launching a weeklong campaign called "Stop Cyber Spying Week" to draw attention to the massive civil liberties problems in H.R. 3523, the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act of 2011, better known as CISPA. CISPA is scheduled to be voted on by the House of Representatives next week.
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