ACLU Sues Maryland State Police for Withholding Public Records Related to "Driving While Black"

"It raises red flags for the Maryland State Police to be so strenuously resisting some of the NAACP’s reasonable requests for information about steps the department has taken to ensure racial profiling is not perpetuated or tolerated on our highways," said ACLU of Maryland Legal Director Deborah A. Jeon.

ACLU senior staff attorney Reginald T. Shuford said, "In this time of creeping government secrecy, Marylanders should be especially vigilant in preserving their basic ‘right to know’ about important issues of public trust."

The lawsuit charges violations of the MPIA, stemming from an information request initially made by the NAACP in February 2007. The MPIA requires that "a custodian shall permit a person or governmental unit to inspect any public record at any reasonable time." However, several portions of the NAACP’s request were completely denied, including requests for records related to the MSP's internal investigations of racial profiling complaints. The NAACP offered to accept documents redacted where appropriate, but MSP still refused to produce the information.