Taken from an ACLU Press Release dated February 5, 2000: a white motorist has filed a federal lawsuit against the city of Philadelphia and two police officers alleging his civil rights were violated when he was pulled over in a predominately black neighborhood and searched without probable cause.

On March 28, 1998, police allegedly spotted Robert A. Hluchan Jr. and his girlfriend, who is black, walking out her house together.

Without their knowledge, someone was standing nearby with a video camera filming Officers Brian Sanders and Kenneth Fleming as they strip searched Hluchan, handcuffed him and rummaged through his BMW. APBNews.com reported that the tape was made public when Hluchan's attorneys filed suit.

The suit alleges that after the search the officers went to the house of Hluchan's girlfriend and her grandmother and searched the house without a search warrant or permission.

According to the story, the lawsuit is seeking financial compensation for both Hluchan and his girlfriend's grandmother, Hannah Smiley, 79, who was home during the search. The suit also asks for an injunction against searching without probable cause or because of race factors.
=======================

NAACP v. City of Philadelphia suspected to be only the tip of the iceberg

When six officers of the 39th Police District of Philadelphia were convicted and incarcerated in the early 90's for planting drugs on African Americans in order to wrongfully obtain their prosecution and conviction, the ACLU believed the problem was far more widespread than just this case.

Threatened by ACLU litigation, the city began to negotiate to a plan to do detailed racial analysis of police date. A settlement in federal court required the city to record information on traffic stops such as race, reason and result. Subsequent analysis in the late 90's showed continuing racial inequities when the number of vehicle stops for whites and non-white were compared to their relative percentages of the total population.

This is the ACLU's DWB News Archive.
Know your rights if you are stopped by the police, the FBI, the INS or the Customs Service.