Local opportunities to limit and focus law enforcement authorities

Model legislation placing limits on local law enforcement

This ordinance protects the fundamental rights and liberties of law-abiding Americans to be free of arbitrary monitoring, surveillance, detention, search, or arrest by local law enforcement authorities; and focuses local law enforcement agencies on their core public safety mission.

Image: RVLTN Design

In particular, the legislation restores Fourth Amendment rights by limiting local law enforcement agencies' participation in:

• domestic surveillance
• intelligence collection
• immigration enforcement
• profiling according to race, religion, country of origin, or political speech
• undercover infiltration of activist groups and religious institutions
• cooperation between local law enforcement agencies and military personnel

The ordinance also includes data collection and disclosure requirements, a private right of action, and liquidated damages for individuals whose rights are violated.

For more information, or to share of your interest so that we can most effectively support your efforts and inform and inspire others, please email Grassroots Campaign Coordinator Emma Roderick.

Resources

Organizing resources

• Talking points about local surveillance and immigration enforcement (También está disponible en español)
• Toolkit for organizing locally
• Quarter-page flier for publicizing local events (También está disponible en español)
• Flier en español
  Note: This flier is an editable PDF form. If you find you are unable to use the form to add your local event information to the flier, please download the latest version of Adobe Reader.
• "Restoring the Fourth Amendment: How We, the People, Can Win Over Washington" by Shahid Buttar, Huffington Post, July 3, 2010
• PR Tips from David Swanson
• Social network activism and the Patriot Act by Jon Pincus

Organizing resources on immigration

• Uncover the Truth Toolkit: ICE and Police Collaborations
• "Organize for Justice and Human Rights" flier by the Human Rights Immigrant Community Action Network (HURRICANE)

Legislative resources

• Model ordinance on law enforcement limits
• Resolution passed by the Common Council of Albany, NY, to request that the Department of Justice revisit prosecutions in terrorism-related trials to ensure compliance with constitutional rights such as access to exculpatory evidence
• Frequently asked questions about local ordinances and resolutions

Information resources on surveillance

• Suspicious Activity Reporting to go Nationwide, a report by Political Research Associates
• What's Wrong with Fusion Centers, a December 2007 report by the American Civil Liberties Union
• Fusion Center Update, a July 2008 update to the ACLU's 2007 report by Mike German and Jay Stanley

Analysis of immigration

• The Performance of 287(g) Agreements, a report by the Department of Homeland Security's Office of the Inspector General
• Guilty By Immigration Status, a 2008 report by the National Network for Immigrant and Refugee Rights
• "Mission Unaccomplished: The Misplaced Priorities of the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office," a Goldwater Institute Policy Report by Clint Bolick, Director
• "The Role of Local Police: Striking a Balance Between Immigration Enforcement and Civil Liberties" by the Police Foundation, published April 2009

Law enforcement voices opposing profiling

• "Policing Immigration. A Job We Do Not Want" by Chief Chris Burbank, Phillip Atiba Goff, and Dr. Tracie L. Keesee, Huffington Post, June 7, 2010
• "Big-City Police Chiefs Urge Overhaul of Immigration Policy" by Damien Cave, New York Times, July 1, 2009
• Testimony of Richard Wiles, Sheriff of El Paso, TX, to U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary at the "Securing the Borders and America's Points of Entry, What Remains to Be Done" Hearing, May 20, 2009

Immigrant Roots // Immigrant Rights image by RVLTN Design.