UCI Students Complain of Police Detaining Them

In the last three weeks, six UC Irvine students have appealed to the university’s ombudsman for help, saying they have been arbitrarily stopped by Irvine and Newport Beach police officers who then photographed them.

The students, all Asian Americans, told ombudsman Ron Wilson they believe police stopped them because of their ethnicity, Wilson said Wednesday. The students approached his office and not the police directly, the ombudsman said, because they feared repercussion.

Irvine police officials said Wednesday they received a letter from Wilson about the complaints and sent two officers last week to meet with a student group. Newport Beach police said they were not aware of the complaints.

Officials of both departments said Wednesday that their officers stop people only if they believe there is “probable cause” to do so. Police said officers can photograph people they have detained upon receiving permission or if an officer suspects involvement in criminal activities.

Wilson said he had contacted Irvine police but had yet to approach Newport Beach police because he lacks sufficient information from the students to do so.

The six students said they were “told to pull over, that they’re illegally assembled or that there was probable cause because there’s three or more” people in a car, Wilson said.

“I know most of the students and these are students who are academically sound achievers with no records of having done anything wrong regarding university procedures,” said Wilson, a student advisor for 12 years.

In a grievance petition filed with the ombudsman’s office, one student recounted being stopped twice in as many weeks by Irvine police officers. During the second stop, police asked him if he had “tattoos or scars,” if he was a gang member or if he had been arrested before, the student said.

“Afterwards, they said that they were going to take pictures of me and my car,” the student wrote in the petition. “At first I refused, but with five police officers standing around you at 3 a.m. on the side of a freeway, how can you say no?”

Wilson said he forwarded a copy of the complaint to Irvine police, along with his own letter.

“I just want to collaborate with [police] on their mission of trying to protect the community from gang activities,” Wilson said he wrote in his letter. “But at the same time, I’m concerned that in their zeal, they may be making victims of bystanders just because of their ethnicity.”

Irvine Police Lt. Tom Hume said that in response to Wilson’s letter and a request from the Asian Pacific Student Assn., the department sent two representatives to campus last week to participate in a discussion panel hosted by the student group.

Sgt. Jeffrey Love and Sgt. Al Murray sought to assure about 30 students at the forum that police are not targeting Asians.

Tina Matsubayashi, chairwoman of the student group, said the panel discussion was held because of the many complaints from students who felt they were being “unfairly singled out.”

“This is something that has been going on for a while, and [the students] are concerned that it’s an ongoing trend,” she said. “We just want the police to know that this is a concern of ours.”

Hume said Irvine police do not stop people “simply because they’re Asian; our officers do not do that.”

Newport Beach Police Sgt. John Desmond said his department is not aware of any complaints by UCI students.

“But we are aware of the concerns of people with photograph-taking and we’re very well aware of what the court’s decisions are” regarding the practice, he said. “We don’t just routinely stop people and take their photos on the basis of the way they look or because we feel they belong to a certain group.”

The American Civil Liberties Union and the Garden Grove Police Department recently settled a lawsuit filed by five Asian Americans who alleged that police took their photographs for gang files and mug books without probable cause. The city agreed to pay $85,000 to the teenagers.

Among other key aspects of the settlement, the court ruled that detainees must knowingly and voluntarily consent in writing before their pictures are taken. Knowledge or suspicion of gang membership or affiliation is insufficient justification for uncontested photographs, the court ruled, adding that there must be factual indication that the person detained was involved in criminal conduct.