ACLU Asks Roswell Police To Update Criminal Housing Policy

ROSWELL, GA — The American Civil Liberties Union of Georgia, Georgia Justice Project, and Atlanta Legal Aid Society recently sent a letter to the Roswell Police Department urging it to revise its criminal history screening policy to comply with the federal Fair Housing Act.

The police department’s current policy requires participating landlords to exclude potential tenants with a broad range of criminal histories. For example, the policy bans people who have been on probation or parole for a non-violent felony anytime within the last decade - which includes people who committed a single non-violent crime 15 years ago or more, the ACLU wrote.

"This policy not only violates basic American principles and fails to make our communities any safer, but also violates the Fair Housing Act," the ACLU wrote in a press release. "The Fair Housing Act prohibits the police department as well as landlords from engaging in practices that disproportionately harm people of color, unless the practice is shown to be necessary to serve a legitimate government interest that cannot be served in a less discriminatory manner."

Roswell Community Relations Manager Julie Brechbill said the police chief received the letter Nov. 6 concerning the issue raised in the press release.

"The city attorney and the police chief will be working with the ACLU attorney to address their concerns," Brechbill wrote.

The ACLU said it first sent a letter April 3 to the city and followed up in April and May to discuss the issue in person. The city responded it would discuss it in July at a council meeting, where they asked for more details on other cities with similar programs, which the ACLU said it did but did not hear anything.

The letter stated that the police department should "immediately stop requiring landlords to engage in criminal history screening through the Crime Free Housing Program or through any other means." Alternatively, the letter urges the city to change its criminal history screening to comply with the Fair Housing Act, the ACLU wrote.

“In the United States, where people of color are disproportionately arrested and convicted, a program based on criminal records like Roswell’s is racial discrimination,” said Kosha Tucker, staff attorney of the ACLU of Georgia. “Reintegrating people who may have made mistakes in the past makes our communities safer. Evicting and marginalizing such people is cruel, discriminatory, and counterproductive.”