A Multnomah County judge has issued a temporary restraining order against the city of Portland and the Portland Police Beauru related to PPB’s livestreams of ongoing protests in downtown Portland.
The temporary restraining order, or TRO, was requested by the ACLU of Oregon in a lawsuit filed in Multnomah County Circuit Court Wednesday.
The ACLU argues that PPB has used its video livestreams as a form of surveillance over Portland demonstrators who are continuing to protest police brutality and racial injustice and that the agency has violated an Oregon law prohibiting law enforcement from collecting and maintaining data on people based on their religious, political or social activities when those people are not suspected of criminal activity.
In a ruling issued Thursday, Judge Stephen Bushong agreed that the city and PPB’s actions may be in violation of that law. He ordered that the city of Portland and PPB are temporarily prohibited from collecting or maintaining audio or video of protesters demonstrating in public spaces, “except where the video or audio relates to an investigation of criminal activities and there exist reasonable grounds to suspect the subjects of the video are involved in criminal conduct.”
The temporary restraining order expires on Monday, Aug. 10, unless further extended by the judge by a preliminary injunction. A hearing is set for that same day.
This is the ACLU of Oregon’s third lawsuit against the city of Portland related to ongoing demonstrations.