Washington, DC – Muslim Advocates filed a brief in Los Angeles County Superior Court urging the court to order the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) to search for and disclose additional information regarding its 2007 “community mapping” program. The LAPD initially designed the program to target Los Angeles’ American Muslim population, so that it could “identify [Muslim] communities . . . which may be susceptible to violent ideologically based extremism.”

Although then-LAPD Chief of Police William Bratton announced in November 2007 that the LAPD would abandon the program, Muslim Advocates has spent years trying to get access to information about the LAPD’s plan to “map” law-abiding Muslims throughout the City of Los Angeles. In 2013, Muslim Advocates sent the LAPD a request for public records seeking details about how this program was proposed and enacted. After years of the LAPD refusing to search for and turn over the requested documents, Muslim Advocates filed this petition seeking court intervention.

“After public outcry regarding the blatantly discriminatory nature of this proposed policy, the LAPD quietly revoked the program,” said Juvaria Khan, staff attorney at Muslim Advocates. “As evident by the LAPD’s failure to satisfy its record requests obligations, they’re trying to hide the details of this controversial proposal from the public.

“The LAPD’s failure to comply with this records request prevents communities from learning about potentially discriminatory policies public bodies may be undertaking. It is vital that the public have this information in order to prevent the LAPD, or any other law enforcement agencies, from trying to adopt such an ill-conceived and discriminatory program. Given today’s rise in anti-Muslim sentiment, we must continue to stand strong in the struggle for transparency.”

Muslim Advocates is represented by the law firm Davis Wright Tremaine LLP in this matter. Read the brief here.

Muslim Advocates is a national legal advocacy and educational organization that works on the frontlines of civil rights to guarantee freedom and justice for Americans of all faiths.

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