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SALT LAKE CITY -- The ACLU of Utah plans to investigate a case of alleged racial profiling, involving a 14-year-old boy at West High School.
Lisa and Kevin Winston say their son, a student at West High, was targeted by police without just cause. The ACLU says if that is true the case is troubling on many levels.
The Winstons say on Dec. 16, their son Caleb was accused of being a gang member. They say the police searched his backpack and photographed him without their consent.
The Salt Lake City Police Department says gang detectives were at West High that day as part of an effort to find out why gang activity has been going at the school.
Police say a detective confronted Caleb after he saw what looked like gang writing on the teen's backpack. Caleb's notebook also had what appeared to be gang graffiti.
In the end, officers did not find anything to indicate the teen was a gang member.
Police say they questioned other students to gather information in case something happened in the future.
"I think it's incumbent upon us to follow up with that. If we neglect those type of things and something bad happens, it's on us," said Salt Lake City Police Sgt. Shawn Josephson.
But ACLU of Utah Legal Director Darcy Goddard says officers can't just interrogate a child who hasn't done anything wrong about something as speculative as his backpack.
On the phone Wednesday, Goddard told KSL News, "It's becoming more and more of a problem. As the country gets more focused on law and order, I think that there's an idea that we should all be sacrificing a personal measure of freedom for collective good."
The ACLU is meeting with Caleb's parents on Friday to discuss the case further.
Salt Lake City police are also doing their own investigation, at Police Chief Chris Burbank's request, to see if officers acted appropriately.
E-mail: syi@ksl.com
