Resource: Police Photograph and Fingerprint Without Probable Cause

Keyon Harrison, an African American 16-year-old, was walking home from school when he saw another youth with a model truck and paused to look at it. Grand Rapids police, who later claimed that two youth looking at a toy truck is so suspicious that it justifies a police investigation, stopped Keyon, took his picture, and fingerprinted him. Even though Keyon did nothing more than admire a toy, his picture and fingerprints are now in a police database. The Grand Rapids police have used this “photograph and print” procedure on about 1,000 people per year, many of whom are African American youth. Keyon and Denishio Johnson, another African American youth who was similarly printed and photographed, sued to end the practice.