Research & Publications

This report recommends a hierarchy of reforms based on their financial feasibility. Policy updates and improvements would require no new resources and would help to improve degraded police-community relationships.

“Smart city” products are often touted as cost-efficient solutions to providing government services and addressing societal challenges, but in reality, these technologies are no more intelligent than the data and algorithms behind them. Like other tools, their effectiveness depends on when, where and how they are used. These technologies can cause real harm to people—they have the power to exacerbate racial or economic inequality and can expose deeply personal information to law enforcement or private parties.

Like many teenage boys, Nathan and Caleb, 14- and 16-year-old brothers who were students at Clarkston High School in rural Washington, liked to play pranks. At least they did until an incident at school landed both boys with felony charges. One morning the boys were in the same class with a substitute teacher watching a movie when they remembered the small bottles of fart spray they had with them. They unleashed the spray, causing students to complain with disgust and then spray their own cologne and perfume to mask the smell.

The purpose of this report is to share the trends and patterns we have identified, to offer policy solutions to end the disgraceful practice of deporting veterans, address the needs of those who have been deported, and, ultimately, to help bring our banished veterans back home to the U.S. where they can be reunited with their families.

Surveillance is on the rise in our communities, but basic transparency, oversight, and accountability remain the exception, not the rule. This guide provides a step-by-step framework to approach surveillance proposals, properly evaluate their true costs, and develop policies that provide transparency, oversight, and accountability.

Privacy & Free Speech: It’s Good for Business is your essential guide to avoiding costly privacy and free speech missteps that can destroy user trust, lead to government investigations and expensive lawsuits, and damage the bottom line.

California jails are required by law to protect the reproductive health of the people in their care. But across the state, we’re seeing that accessing reproductive health care becomes a frightening and traumatic experience for incarcerated people. A report by the ACLU of California, “Reproductive Health Behind Bars in California,” found that jails are putting people’s health at risk by denying, delaying, and ignoring crucial reproductive health care.

The Pathways Report provides the broad recommendations of the Blue Ribbon Commission for Marijuana Policy. The report draws from the research and public forums of the Blue Ribbon Commission to provide a comprehensive view of the strategies, policy goals, and policy options available to Californians as they consider the legalization and taxation of marijuana policy.