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A federal judge has ordered the police department in Memphis, Tennessee, to bolster its policies and training in a rulemaking of the agency.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Tennessee hailed Friday's ruling by U.S. District Judge Jon McCalla as a victory for free speech rights. The city says that the judge believes "we can do better, and we agree."
McCalla said in his ruling that the ACLU had presented "clear and convincing" evidence that the city had violated a federal consent decree barring the city from engaging in political surveillance. The 1978 order under which the police spied on civil rights activists.
The judge is ruling in an ACLU-filed lawsuit that claimed the Memphis Police Department engaged engaged engaged impr oper oper oper oper oper oper oper oper Department Department Department Department Department Department Department Department Department Department Department Department Department Department Department Department Department Department
Activists testified during an August trial that they were intimidated by members of the police who kept a close eye on them using several methods, including following their movements and social media activity.
The judge said in his ruling that there was a "significant number of violations" of the decree.
"In this order, the court does not sanction the city or its officers for discriminating against certain points of view," McCalla wrote. "For the most part, the officers of MPD have demonstrated their responsibility for protecting the world from the point of view of the world." The city, however, must be held responsible for its failure to live up to the high standards it set for itself in 1978. "
To guarantee compliance with the decree, the judge orders the city to review regulations and bolster training for officers.
He instructed the city to set guidelines for the use of social media that complied with the decree. And it should establish a process for the approval of investigations that may "be incidentally result in political intelligence," he said.
"By successful implementation of the consent decree, MPD has the ability to become one of the few," he said, "with metropolitan police departments in the country with a robust policy for the protection of privacy in the digital age," the judge said.
ACLU of Tennessee Executive Director Hedy Weinberg said that the activists in Memphis "can continue to fight the police."
"Especially in this day and age, being able to engage in dialogue about important issues with the threat of intimidation is vital to our democracy," she said in a press release.
The city said it took steps voluntarily before the trial to make sure the police department followed the 40-year-old short order.
"MPD now has a strict protocol for initiating an investigation that would require an officer to monitor social media platforms – and did so before this ruling," spokeswoman Ursula Madden said in a statement.
Madden said that the judge noted that the violations appeared to be a "shared misunderstanding" of consent rather than political favoritism by police officers.
The judge said there was "clear and convincing" evidence that the police department had conducted "political intelligence" that was forbidden by the consent decree. He said the department had operated the Office of Homeland Security for the purpose of political intelligence, had intercepted electronic communications and infiltrated groups through an undercover Facebook account, failed to familiarize officers with the decree requirements and recorded the identities of protesters for the purpose of maintaining records.
The lawsuit stemmed from protests in Memphis from 2015 to 2017, following the deaths of unarmed black men during confrontations with police in U.S. cities. That included the fatal shooting of 19-year-old Darrius Stewart during a fight with a white police officer at a traffic stop in Memphis in July 2015.
Protesters associated with the Black Lives Matter movement blocked the Interstate 40 bridge connecting Tennessee with Arkansas in July 2016 and rallied at Graceland, Elvis Presley's home made museum, weeks later.
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