Research & Publications

Egregious violations of ICE medical care standards played a prominent role in eight deaths in immigration detention facilities from 2010 to 2012. Fatal Neglect: How ICE Ignores Deaths in Detention, a report jointly produced by the American Civil Liberties Union, Detention Watch Network, and National Immigrant Justice Center, examines these deaths and the agency’s response to them. Our research shows that even though ICE conducted reviews that identified violations of medical standards as contributing factors in these deaths, routine ICE detention facility inspections before and after the deaths failed to acknowledge—or at times dismissed—these violations. Instead of forcing changes in culture, systems, and processes that could reduce future deaths, ICE’s deficient inspections system essentially swept the agency’s own death review findings under the rug.

Black motorists in Florida are stopped and ticketed for seatbelt violations in far greater numbers than white motorists — nearly twice as often statewide and up to four times as often in certain counties — according to a new report from the American Civil Liberties Union. The ACLU is calling for investigation by the Florida Attorney General's Office of Civil Rights and County Commissions charged with oversight over specific law enforcement agencies.

The ACLU’s analysis is based on publicly available data reported by law enforcement agencies across Florida pursuant to the Florida Safety Belt Law. The law requires each agency to annually report to state officials the race and ethnicity of every recipient of a ticket for violating seatbelt requirements. The data is published annually by the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles. Analysis of the most recent statewide seatbelt citation data shows the law has been applied much more often to Black motorists than to white motorists.

In 2014, Black motorists across Florida were stopped and ticketed for seatbelt violations at nearly twice the rate as white motorists overall. Seatbelt enforcement by specific county sheriff’s departments resulted in even greater disparities. Black motorists were stopped and cited:

4 times more often than white motorists by the Escambia County Sheriff’s Office in 2011 (the most recent year that this agency reported seatbelt citation data);
3 times more often than white motorists by the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office in 2014;
2.8 times more often than white motorists by the Orange County Sheriff’s Office in 2014

The report notes that the differences in seatbelt-wearing behavior between Black and white people, as documented by statewide and national studies, do not explain the racial disparities in seatbelt citation rates identified in this report. It also identifies law enforcement agencies that have failed to comply with the Florida Safety Belt Law’s data collection and reporting requirement.

In addition to calling for investigation into the causes of these racial disparities, the ACLU seeks legislation that would, going forward, penalize law enforcement agencies that fail to comply with the statute’s reporting requirement, and recommends that law enforcement collect and analyze data for all traffic and pedestrian stops. It also calls on law enforcement agencies to take promote fair and impartial policing by providing testing on implicit bias, training on bias-free policing to all officers, and supervision and retraining officers whose stop-and-citation practices result in large racial disparities.

Learn more: Black Motorists in Florida Cited for Seatbelt Violations Nearly Twice as Often as White Motorists

This report was amended on April 24, 2016. A description of amendments can be found on pages 36-38.

The 2014-2015 Ebola crisis was the largest and most serious such outbreak in history, resulting in more than 28,000 infections and over 11,000 deaths, the overwhelming majority in West Africa. American health care workers played an important role in the response, with U.S.-based relief organizations sending considerable staff and resources to West Africa.

Advocates, service providers, attorneys, and people working in membership-based organizations were invited to share stories and recommendations regarding policing and domestic violence and sexual assault in response to a nationwide survey open for a one-month period in April to May 2015. More than 900 people responded. Responses reflected the themes described in the pages that follow.

Read the full report here, or see highlights from the report.

Highlights from the 2015 report, "Responses from the Field: Sexual Assault, Domestic Violence, and Policing." Read the full report here.