DETROIT (WWJ/AP) – The American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan says Detroit police are removing homeless people from the popular Greektown entertainment district downtown and dropping them off miles away — sometimes outside the city. 
 
 Following a year-long investigation, the ACLU filed a complaint with the U.S. Justice Department and sent a letter to Detroit police demanding an end to what they call a “disturbing practice.” 
 
 “DPD’s practice of essentially kidnapping homeless people and abandoning them miles away from the neighborhoods they know – with no means for a safe return — is inhumane, callous and illegal,” said Sarah Mehta, ACLU of Michigan staff attorney. “The city’s desire to hide painful reminders of our economic struggles cannot justify discriminating against the poor, banishing them from their city, and endangering their lives. A person who has lost his home has not lost his right to be treated with dignity.” 
 
 The organization says it started receiving complaints last year and that the homeless are told they are not welcome in Greektown, which is popular with visitors to Detroit. The people are then forced in to vans, driven away and then deserted. 
 
 Mehta told WWJ Newsradio 950 that what police are doing is not just illegal, but inhumane. 
 
 “They’re being approached and harassed by police, not necessarily for anything they’re doing, but just because of the way that they look,” Mehta said. “Often they’re being dropped off late at night in neighborhoods that they don’t know. Police often take any money they have out of their pockets and force them to walk back to Detroit, with no guarantee of any safety.” 
 
 Detroit Police Chief Chester Logan said he will look into it. 
 
 “At the present time, the Detroit Police Department has not received a copy of the complaint that has been filed,” said Logan, in a statement. “Therefore, it would be inappropriate to provide further comment without reviewing the specific allegations.” 
 
 The ACLU listed the stories of five people who said they were doing nothing illegal when they were “taken for a ride” by Detroit police. (Read about them here). 
 
 “One of the warming centers drew our attention to it,” ACLU spokeswoman Rana Elmir told the Associated Press. “We then spoke to the impacted individuals. There are many more stories.” 
 
 Andrew Sheehan, 37, said it has happened to him at least four times since December 2011. 
 
 “I had my back turned to him and I did not see him approaching, and the first thing he did was he kicked me. He didn’t identify himself as an officer and he kicked me and told me to get up,” said Sheehan, in a video posted by the ACLU. “I asked him if I was free to go. He told me no.” 
 
 On one occasion, Sheehan said officers were taking him to a shelter, but instead dropped him off at the boundary between Detroit and River Rouge, about 8 miles away. 
 
 “If you don’t have money, or if you’re poor of if you’re, whatever, they’ve … shown is that you’re not important — you’re not worth protecting, and we’re definitely not going to serve you. We’ll serve you up a field trip,” Sheehan said. 
 
 Another man told the ACLU he was picked up several times by police and on at least two occasions left on the city’s east side. Another said he was dumped in Dearborn, west of Detroit. 
 
 Michigan Thomas, Outreach Coordinator at the Ss. Peter and Paul Jesuit Church Warming Center, said many of these people will then spend hours walking back to shelters, warming centers, and churches where they can get a hot meal. 
 
 “You don’t know where you’re going; you don’t know where you’re ending up. Maybe when you get there you’re abused in some way,” said Thoma. “What would that feel like?” 
 
 In 2010, nearly 19,000 people were homeless in the Detroit area, according to the Neighborhood Service Organization, a nonprofit human services group. 
 
 (TM and © Copyright 2013 CBS Radio Inc. and its relevant subsidiaries. CBS RADIO and EYE Logo TM and Copyright 2013 CBS Broadcasting Inc. Used under license. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.) ||||| The following information was provided by the ACLU in a news release: 
 
 The ACLU’s letter to Detroit documents the experiences of five individuals who were doing nothing illegal, yet were subjected to this abusive and unlawful treatment on multiple occasions. 
 
 • Andrew Sheehan, 37, was “taken for a ride” at least four times since December 2011. Andrew has been homeless on and off for several years because of a substance abuse problem. He has since completed a drug rehabilitation program and is now working, living in an apartment, and continuing to attend religious services at Saints Peter and Paul Church in Greektown. Andrew has been picked up several times while sitting on a manhole in Greektown to keep warm. Police have driven him anywhere from five to seven miles away. On one occasion officers said they were taking Sheehan to a shelter, but instead dropped him off at the boundary between Detroit and River Rouge on Fort Street—eight miles from where he was picked up. 
 
 • Dennis B., 54, has been homeless on and off for many years. In 2011, Dennis was “taken for a ride” by officers approximately four or five times. On several occasions, officers approached Dennis near St. Mary’s Church, frisked him for loose change, and insisted that he throw out any money in his pockets, removed him from Greektown and dropped him off around 6 Mile Road on the Detroit’s eastside. In January 2012, Dennis was again standing outside St. Mary’s Church when an officer told him he was not allowed to be in the area and subsequently took Dennis to the corner of Gratiot Street and Harper Street and left him there. 
 
 • Charles E., 58, has had a brain aneurism, experiences seizures, and has an ulcer in his leg. After his son’s death in 1992, Charles began to experience severe emotional and mental difficulties, leading to the loss of his job and home. On one evening in March 2012, Charles and his brother were walking on the sidewalk on Lafayette Street near Beaubien Street when police officers put them in the van and drove them to Buchanan Street in Southwest Detroit. Because Charles was afraid of what he might encounter in that area and despite the significant pain he was experiencing from the blood clots in his legs, he and his brother crossed the Lodge freeway and walked two hours back to downtown Detroit. 
 
 • Elvin D., 46, has been homeless, on and off, for four or five years. In the fall of 2012, Elvin was sleeping in Hart Plaza when, around midnight, a police officer approached him and offered to take him to a warming center. Instead of taking Elvin to a shelter, the officer dropped him off on Michigan Avenue in Dearborn. Elvin walked most of the night to return to downtown Detroit. 
 
 • Marvin S., 37, was standing on Woodward Avenue when two officers with the Wayne County Sheriff’s Department pulled up, handcuffed him, and placed him in the back of their squad car. Marvin demanded to know why he was being arrested, but the officers refused to answer his questions as they drove out of downtown Detroit. Eventually, the officers pulled over in Allen Park near the “World’s Largest Tire” near I-94, approximately 14 miles from downtown Detroit, and told Marvin to “get out.” ||||| Detroit police are accused of removing homeless people from a popular tourist spot and dropping them off miles away, sometimes beyond the city limits, according to a complaint filed with the U.S. Department of Justice. 
 
 "A yearlong ACLU investigation uncovered the disturbing practice of officers approaching individuals who appear to be homeless in the Greektown area, forcing them into police vans and deserting them miles away," according to a news release from the American Civil Liberties Union, which filed the complaint today. 
 
 In addition to the complaint, the group said that it also ...
– Detroit police are ushering homeless people out of a tourist area and leaving them miles away—in some cases outside the city itself, the ACLU alleges in a federal complaint. Officers are "approaching individuals who appear to be homeless in the Greektown area, forcing them into police vans, and deserting them miles away," the group says in a press release, citing a yearlong probe into the practice. The ACLU contends those subject to such treatment are having constitutional rights like due process violated. Police say they'll investigate, but opted not to comment further, the Detroit Free Press reports. The ACLU is calling on the Justice Department to get involved and wants the city to explicitly direct police that such practices are illegal. "Often (people are) being dropped off late at night in neighborhoods that they don’t know. Police often take any money they have out of their pockets and force them to walk back to Detroit, with no guarantee of any safety," an ACLU attorney tells WWJ Newsradio 950. An ACLU rep says the organization learned of the practice from one of the city's warming centers. CBS Detroit has the stories of five people who the ACLU says were "taken for a ride": among them, a 37-year-old who says he was once dropped off eight miles from where he was picked up.