Read a PDF of our statement here. 

LDF Files FOIA Requests with St. Louis-Area Law Enforcement Agencies Concerning Police Actions at Ongoing Protests 

The NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. (LDF) today filed Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests with the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department (SLMPD), the St. Louis County Police Department, the Richmond Heights Police Department, and the University City Police Department. The filings ask for information regarding police actions taken against people who have been present during the ongoing peaceful protests in the St. Louis area since the September 15th announcement of the ‘not guilty’ verdict in former SLMPD Officer Jason Stockley’s trial for killing Anthony Lamar Smith.

Our FOIA requests seek:

  • All departmental policies, memos, and emails relating to arrests, use-of-force practices, and demonstrations and crowd control policing tactics;
  • All documents related to the number of people present during the protests who were arrested, with the information broken down by date of arrest; location of arrest; race, gender, and age of persons arrested; charge; and municipal or state penal code violated; and
  • All documents related to the number of complaints filed against law enforcement officers, with the information broken down by date of complaint, date of incident, location of incident, name of the involved officer(s), type of complaint, disposition of complaint, and race, gender, and age of the complainants.

LDF remains deeply committed to ensuring all Americans can safely exercise their constitutional right to protest free from irresponsible and illegal police tactics. Lawful civil unrest should never be met with excessive force.

SLMPD FOIA Request

St. Louis County Police Department FOIA Request

Richmond Heights Police Department FOIA Request

University City Police Department FOIA Request

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Founded in 1940, the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. (LDF) is the nation’s first civil and human rights law organization and has been completely separate from the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) since 1957—although LDF was originally founded by the NAACP and shares its commitment to equal rights. LDF’s Thurgood Marshall Institute is a multi-disciplinary and collaborative hub within LDF that launches targeted campaigns and undertakes innovative research to shape the civil rights narrative. In media attributions, please refer to us as the NAACP Legal Defense Fund or LDF.

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