End the use of coercive and deceptive interrogation methods in policing.

Act Now

The ACLU of Vermont is committed to ending police violence and increasing transparency and accountability. We support S.6 as a measure to limit coercive police interrogations of youth in Vermont and prevent false confessions, and we urge that the same protections be applied to all police interrogations.

The ACLU filed a lawsuit against a Vermont police department whose extensive use of false, misleading, and coercive interrogation tactics violated our client's state and federal rights. Situations like these offend our values and violate the law; they can and should be prevented from occurring in Vermont. Just as it is wrong to allow police to lie to juveniles to coerce false confessions, it is wrong to allow the same conduct for adults.

Coercive and deceptive interrogations often result in false confessions.

Under current Vermont law, police are permitted to use coercive and deceptive tactics on any person regardless of age when interviewing and questioning a person in connection with a criminal investigation. These interrogation tactics can and do result in people falsely confessing to offenses they did not commit.

Deceptive interrogation tactics ultimately harm the people our state has made the most vulnerable: people of color, youth, and people with mental or physical disabilities. BIPOC are overrepresented in the criminal legal system, including in exoneration databases and in instances of false confessions. Experts have found that people living with mental and physical disabilities are also at particular risk for exploitation and manipulation during interrogation. Youth are particularly susceptible to deceptive tactics because the part of the brain that controls future planning, judgment, and decision-making is not fully formed until their mid-twenties.

We are proud to support S.6, an act related to prohibiting deceptive and coercive interrogation methods for juveniles in this legislative session. Now that Governor Scott has vetoed the bill, we need you to contact your legislators and urge them to override his veto.

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I am writing you today to ask you to override Governor Scott's veto of S.6 and support efforts to prohibit deceptive and coercive methods in interrogation techniques. It's wrong for the police to coerce false confessions in any interrogations – whether involving children or adults.

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Youth are particularly susceptible to deceptive tactics because the part of the brain that controls future planning, judgment, and decision-making is not fully formed until one's mid-twenties. These tactics also harm victims, as false confessions often result in an innocent person being convicted for a crime, while the actual perpetrator faces no accountability. Please override Governor Scott's veto of S.6 so that our kids and victims of crime are kept safe from harmful interrogation tactics.

Sincerely,

[First Name] [Last Name]

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End the use of coercive and deceptive interrogation methods in policing.

Act Now

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