The American Civil Liberties Union of Delaware filed a lawsuit Monday against the Town of Smyrna and two town police officers for alleged wrongful arrest in two separate incidents. This is the second time in less than five months that the ACLU has sued the Town of Smyrna due to the conduct of members of the town’s police force. The lawsuit alleges that in both cases the officers arrested people for exercising their First Amendment rights.

In the first case, the ACLU states that in December 2013, a Smyrna Police officer arrested a resident for flashing his headlights at oncoming traffic.

“The First Amendment gives people the right to flash their headlights to send a message,” said Richard Morse, legal director of the ACLU of Delaware.

The suit alleges that police officers employed by the Town of Smyrna repeatedly arrest motorists driving in the town without regard to whether those motorists are violating the law, for the sole purpose of generating revenue for the town. Furthermore, the suit claims that the expectation of the Smyrna Police Department is that motorists will pay the ticket, regardless of guilt, rather than incur the inconvenience and expense of contesting the charges.

The second incident involves a Smyrna High School student. The ACLU alleges a Smyrna Police officer, who also works as a school resource officer in the Smyrna School District, wrongfully arrested a student who was a target of bullying. The lawsuit claims a bullying activity was triggered when a student spoke in Spanish. Because of the concern of repeated harassment, the student’s mother asked the officer to arrest the student who harassed her son. Allegedly the officer said he would have to arrest both students involved and went on to arrest both students.

The charges for both incidents in the lawsuit were eventually dropped.

Smyrna Police Department officials would not discuss the lawsuit, because it's the department's policy not to comment on pending litigation.

“The First Amendment gives people the right to request police action, without fear that they will be arrested because the police don’t like the request. It is unfortunate that we’ve had to sue Smyrna twice this year because its officers don’t obey that law,” said Morse.

ACLU-DE Executive Director Kathleen MacRae said the Smyrna Police Department needs to improve their training, supervision, and internal review procedures.

“The stories told in the lawsuits we have filed and other stories shared with us by Smyrna residents seem to indicate that the Smyrna police believe they can operate outside the boundaries of the U.S. Constitution without reproach. Wrongful arrest is a serious breach of the public trust and a flagrant misuse of the authority a police officer embodies when he straps on a gun and his badge,” said MacRae said. “Individual officers cannot be permitted to abuse their authority and police departments must hold them accountable when they do so.”

The suit asks the court to require the Smyrna Police Department to institute appropriate training, supervision and internal review procedures and to award compensatory damages to the two plaintiffs, and for payment of attorney’s fees.