Justice Department Report Finds Civil Rights Violations by East Haven Police Department

The Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice has been very busy. Last week, it issued a report condemning the rampant civil rights violations of Latinos and immigrants by Sheriff Joe Arpaio and the Maricopa County Sheriffs Office.

Yesterday, the Justice Department released a report on claims of anti-Latino profiling and discrimination by the East Haven Police Department (EHPD) in Connecticut. The DOJ makes detailed findings of unconstitutional activity, indicates it will proceed with litigation if a judicially-enforceable consent decree is not negotiated, and curtails EHPD iimmigration enforcement activities.

The DOJ investigation was launched in response to a complaint from St. Rose Church and Apostle Immigration Services, represented by the Worker & Immigrant Rights Advocacy Clinic at Yale Law School.

The Justice Department letter summarizes as follows:

“Based on our review, we find that EHPD engages in a pattern or practice of systematically discriminating against Latinos in violation of the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution, Title VI, and the Safe Streets Act. In particular, we find that EHPD engages in discriminatory policing against Latinos, including but not limited to targeting Latinos for discriminatory traffic enforcement, treating Latino drivers more harshly than non-Latino drivers after a traffic stop, and intentionally and woefully failing to design and implement internal systems of control that would identify, track, and prevent such misconduct. The pattern or practice of discriminatory policing that we observed is deeply rooted in the Department’s culture and substantially interferes with the ability of EHPD to deliver services to the entire East Haven community.”

KJ