MILWAUKEE (AP) – The Milwaukee Police Department is operating a stop-and-frisk program that mostly targets black and Latino residents who are often detained without cause, the American Civil Liberties Union of Wisconsin alleges in a lawsuit filed Wednesday.
The federal lawsuit was filed on behalf of six black and Latino plaintiffs who say they’ve been stopped once or multiple times since 2010 without a citation or clear explanation. The lawsuit alleges the stop-and-frisk program is citywide but is concentrated in areas largely populated by minorities, including the predominantly black neighborhoods in the north of the city, creating a “deepened public fear of and alienation from” the police.
Police Chief Edward Flynn has suggested that increasing the number of stops in certain areas will disrupt and deter crime, the lawsuit alleges.
It asks the court to order the police department to immediately end the program and to declare that department is violating the Fourteenth Amendment’s equal protection clause and the Fourth Amendment’s protection against unreasonable searches and seizures.
Flynn denies his department has a stop-and-frisk policy, though he maintains that traffic stops in “high crime areas” reduce crime.