Law Enforcement Policy Project

The Clinic helped launch a policy project of the Free Expression Legal Network designed to improve the treatment by law enforcement of journalists at protests. The working coalition includes eleven other law school clinics around the country and media advocacy organizations such as First Look Media, the National Press Photographers Association, and the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press. The group has compiled and analyzed policies from police departments and municipalities around the country. Drawing from those policies, the group is now creating a comprehensive product that identifies common strengths and weaknesses across jurisdictions and offers proposals on policy/legislative fixes that can better protect journalists’ rights.

Journalists’ First Amendment rights have been severely infringed at protests over the last year. Identifying areas for improvement in law enforcement policies will help prevent these abuses going forward. It will also enable departments and press advocates to jointly train officers on how to ensure that journalists are able to fulfill their democratic newsgathering function in chaotic, often hostile environments. Clinic students Anna Whistler, Melissa Muse, Michael Mills, Hayden Rutledge. Olivia Foster, and Andrew Gelfand assisted with this project.

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