Citizens allege that Aurora, Colorado police violated their civil rights

According to a lawsuit recently filed against the City of Aurora, Colorado, in 2012, the Aurora Police Department violated the civil rights of a large number of innocent motorists.  According to reports about the lawsuit, a white male in his twenties or thirties robbed a local Wells Fargo bank and fled the scene in a car, with a bundle of cash which contained a GPS tracking device.  Shortly after the robber fled the scene, the police were able to track the GPS device to an intersection where approximately nineteen cars were stopped; however, the officers were not able to determine exactly which car contained the GPS device and stolen cash.  Rather than waiting and tracking the GPS device to another location, where they could more easily determine which car contained the stolen money, the police blocked the intersection from all directions of travel and removed each of the individuals (men, women and children) at the intersection from their cars, at gun point.  According to reports on the lawsuit, the officers pointed pistols and assault rifles directly at innocent citizens, including children under the age of ten years old.

According to reports, the police officers then patted all of the citizens down and placed many of them in handcuffs, despite having no probable cause or reasonable, articulable suspicion to believe that the citizens were engaged in any criminal activity.  The lawsuit alleges the police then detained the innocent citizens for approximately two-and-one-half hours, while they waited for a more accurate GPS tracking device to arrive from the local FBI field office, which was closed at the time.  Meanwhile, the officers searched the vehicles without a warrant, probable cause or the owners’ consent.  Nearly ninety minutes after the officers began detaining innocent citizens, an officer claimed to have seen a money band in the passenger’s seat of a vehicle.  Finally, an FBI agent arrived on the scene, who could operate a more accurate GPS tracking device.  According to reports, the FBI agent almost immediately received a strong GPS signal emitting from the car in which the officer had observed the money band, and the owner of that car was charged with the bank robbery.

If the reports and lawsuit accurately reflect the officers’ actions, it would appear that these officers engaged in a gross violation of the civil rights of a number of innocent citizens.  As a result, the individual officers and their department could be liable for damages to the citizens who they detained.  Moreover, the officers’ handling of the stop could result in the suppression of crucial evidence needed to convict the actual bank robber.  Needless to say, it will be interesting to see how this case develops and whether the police officers and the City of Aurora, Colorado are ultimately liable to the plaintiffs.

More information on this incident is available at: theblaze.com.