Four years after a lawsuit alleged racial discrimination by law enforcement inside Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, Clayton County police will be changing their operations on the ground.
Entertainers Eric André and Clayton English filed a federal lawsuit in 2022 alleging coercion and discrimination by airport police as part of the "interdiction" program following instances in which each were selected at "random" for additional searches. André and English alleged the searches were not random, and that they were specifically targeted because of their race.
Now, in a settlement with the Clayton County Police Department, the agency is shutting down the interdiction program and requiring officers inside the airport to wear body cameras, according to the entertainers' legal counsel.
Comedians file lawsuit against Atlanta airport
According to the lawsuit, the airport's security program included armed officers "waiting in jet bridges ... to selectively intercept passengers, take their boarding passes and identifications, interrogate them before they board their flights, and search their carry-on luggage, all in the name of combatting drug trafficking."
The encounters, however, "rely on coercion" and target racial minorities, the lawsuit alleged.
English was flying from Atlanta to Los Angeles on Oct. 30, 2020, when he was stopped on the jet bridge by plain clothes officers who "began peppering" him with questions about illegal drugs, according to the lawsuit.
English said he was caught off guard, and told the officers he was not carrying any potential illegal substances. The officers took his ID and boarding pass, then started to look through his luggage, all while other passengers continue to pass him on the jet bridge to board the plane.
"Throughout the encounter, Mr. English was worried if he said anything the officers perceived as 'out of line,' he would not be allowed to board the plane or reach his destination," the lawsuit said. "After boarding the lane, Mr. English spent the entire flight ruminating over the encounter, convinced that something else was going to happen. The entire experience was degrading and disturbing."
About six months later, André was flying from a television shoot in Charleston back to Los Angeles, with a short layover in Atlanta. He too was on his way down the jet bridge at his Delta gate to board his flight when plain clothes officers stopped him and began questioning him about drug possession, the lawsuit said.
"Throughout the encounter, passengers continued to board the plane. Because the jet bridge was so narrow, the passengers had to squeeze around Mr. André and the officers. Many stopped to gawk at the scene," according to the lawsuit.
André later spoke about the interaction on the Howard Stern Show. The comedian said the officers were "shaking Black people down for cash."
In 2023, Clayton County filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit which was granted by the district court. An appeal was filed in 2024, and in September 2025 the lawsuit was reinstated by an appellate court.
The lawsuit was supported through amicus briefs by figures like Tyler Perry, Jamie Foxx, Taraji P. Henson, Sterling K. Brown and Jean Elie, as well as other civil rights groups.
Clayton County to implement changes
According to a release from the Policing Project, from NYU's School of Law and who represented the comedians in the case, Clayton County agreed to a settlement and confirmed the airport would be ending its interdiction program.
"For the first time, the Clayton County Police Department has publicly confirmed that it has ended the airport interdiction program at the center of the lawsuit—a program through which Clayton County police officers targeted hundreds of travelers for encounters without reasonable suspicion, including Mr. André and Mr. English," the group said on Aug. 18.
Not only does the settlement mean the end of the program, Clayton County has also agreed for officers who are assigned to the airport to wear body cameras while on duty and "receive training on the constitutional limits governing police encounters at airports."
"It’s a major victory that Clayton County has confirmed that it has ended this program and is now taking steps to prevent this type of abuse from happening in the future,” André said in the statement.
"What happened to me was wrong, and I wasn’t willing to let it happen to other people," English said. "We held Clayton County accountable, and now the County has confirmed that the program is gone and new protections are in place to protect travelers’ rights."
Clayton County officials declined to comment on the lawsuit to multiple news outlets.
Irene Wright covers Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport as the Atlanta Connect reporter with USA Today's Deep South Connect team. Find her on X @IreneEWright or email her at ismith@usatodayco.com.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Atlanta airport cops to start wearing body cameras following lawsuit
