Racial Profiling

People of color in cities large and small across this nation still live with the day-to-day reality that skin color makes one a suspect in America. Police are more likely to stop and more likely to search motorists who are people of color. The ACLU is working to combat the practice of making decisions based on the race or ethnicity of an individual.

Shimrote Ishaque is joining nine other citizens who have experienced stops, body searches, handcuffing, excessive force and other aggravations by customs officers - all partly due to inaccurate government records.

In June 2005 the Tacoma City Council approved by a 6-2 vote a major reform of police accountability by establishing an independent auditor and a citizen review board. The vote culminates over two years of work by the Police Accountability Working Group, created by the Tacoma Human Rights Commission to draft a proposal for citizen oversight.

The ACLU is suing two federal agents for unlawfully imprisoning and seeking to deport an Iraqi refugee who had broken no laws.

The ACLU-WA is assisting Ian Spiers, a biracial community college student who was questioned and detained by local police and a Homeland Security agent for taking photographs at the Ballard Locks.