The ACLU of Illinois lost a friend and supporter with the death of Paul Lutter on May 4, 2014. An attorney with Bryan Cave LLC, Lutter was an associate and then partner at Ross and Hardies from 1971-2003 and focused primarily on estate and tax law. Born in 1946, Lutter took pride in his family’s Chicago history noting that the Lutter Brick Company helped to rebuild the city after the great fire of 1875. A Phi Beta Kappa 1968 graduate of Carleton College, Lutter received his law degree from Yale in 1971.

Throughout his life, Lutter applied his legal skills and knowledge to further promote civil liberties and the advancement of LGBT rights. He served as Chairman of the Howard Brown Health Center in Chicago helping to guide the city’s largest AIDS clinic through its transition to a general health care center. Colleen Connell, Executive Director of the ACLU of Illinois, first worked with Lutter when he served on the ACLU of Illinois’ board from 1996-2001. She called him a great civil libertarian and philanthropist, and noted that Lutter was "prescient in his realization that legal advocacy also included winning over people's hearts and minds."
 

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The ACLU of Illinois has long been concerned about use of surveillance cameras by Chicago law enforcement - particularly the use of cameras with increasingly sophisticated technology, including the ability to zoom in and track an individual's movements. Senior Staff Attorney Adam Schwartz spoke with the Chicago Sun-Times about the installation of new red-light cameras with a 360 degree panning technology:

Adam Schwartz, a senior attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois, said the Chicago Police Department should only use the 360-degree panning technology when there’s “suspicion of criminal activity.”

That means police should not track individuals on the street unless they’re searching for a “particular suspect,” Schwartz said.

“There is a mission creep. These cameras that were put up for the purpose of traffic enforcement now have 360-capability, which is not part of traffic enforcement, but is for other purposes,” he said.

“Where we go says a lot about who we are. Whether we’re going to the union meeting, to see a criminal defense lawyer or to worship, we need safeguards to ensure that the government isn’t using these ever-expanding camera systems to monitor what people are doing.”

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Read more:

• WBEZ: Poor data keep Chicago’s stop and frisk hidden from scrutiny
• Chicago Tribune Opinion: Collateral consequences of stop-and-frisk
• Federal Judge Orders Major Reforms to NYPD Stop-and-Frisk Practices
• Download handbill: Know Your Rights: Stop & Frisk (PDF)