FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 8, 2019
CONTACT:
Morgan Keller, ACLU-DE Communications Manager
Office: 302-654-5326 x109, Cell: 570-618-1383, [email protected]
Stephen P. Norman, Esquire
Office: 302-537-3799 Cell: 703-599-3044, [email protected]
WILMINGTON, Del. — The American Civil Liberties Union of Delaware and the Norman Law Firm announced today that a federal judge has approved the settlement of its class action lawsuit on behalf of people alleged to have been wrongfully arrested by the Wilmington Police Department. The case alleged a police practice of transporting people to the police station and detaining them there without sufficient evidence that they committed a crime. The case further alleged that such arrests violate the Fourth Amendment of the United States Constitution, which requires probable cause of a crime before arrest.
As a result of the settlement, the Wilmington Police Department agreed to:
- Revise policies and conduct new trainings about investigatory stops and arrests;
- Require written documentation of the facts justifying every arrest; and
- Award monetary compensation and attorneys’ fees to the plaintiffs in the case.
“People have the right not to be arrested without probable cause that they committed a crime. Beyond the personal harm caused by wrongful arrests, that style of policing is at the core of the broken trust between police and the communities they serve. Our hope is that this settlement will solve part of the wrongful arrest problem and help restore some accountability. Police officers need to be acting lawfully when putting someone in handcuffs and taking them back to the station for questioning,” said Kathleen MacRae, Executive Director of the ACLU of Delaware.
Stephen P. Norman of the Norman Law Firm further commented that “It’s been a long road over the course of six years getting to this point, I am thankful for the individual plaintiffs and class representatives who hung in there over the often-difficult long run to help accomplish social change larger than themselves. It’s been a pleasure and honor to represent them as their attorney.”
The plaintiff class was represented by Ryan Tack-Hooper of the ACLU of Delaware and Stephen P. Norman of the Norman Law Firm. The case is Wright v. City of Wilmington, C.A. No. 13-1966, in the United States District Court for the District of Delaware.
The settlement is at: https://www.aclu-de.org/sites/default/files/wright_settlement_as_docketed.pdf
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