Phoenix Law Enforcement Association

Labor_Day_parade_Buffalo_NY

Monday September 6th is Labor Day

The first Labor Day in the United States was celebrated on September 5, 1882 in New York City. In the aftermath of the deaths of a number of workers at the hands of the U.S. military and U.S. Marshals during the 1894 Pullman Strike, President Grover Cleveland put reconciliation with Labor as a top political priority. Fearing further conflict, legislation making Labor Day a national holiday was rushed through Congress unanimously and signed into law a mere six days after the end of the strike. Cleveland was also concerned that aligning an American labor holiday with existing international May Day celebrations would stir up negative emotions linked to the Haymarket Affair. All 50 U.S. states have made Labor Day a state holiday. Pictured at right is a photo of a Labor Day parade on Main St. in Buffalo NY in 1900.

PLEA PSA for County Attorney Race

Bill_Montgomery PLEA has endorsed Mr. Bill Montgomery (R) in the upcoming election for the office of Maricopa County Attorney. Mr. Montgomery is a candidate who believes in the rule of law and who will not undo progressive legal ground work that has been previously laid by his predecessor in the fight on ilegal immigration. Mr. Montgomery has a strong pro law enforcement track record and has demonstrated that he can work effectively with law enforcement throughout Maricopa County. Mr. Montgomery is in favor of SB 1070 and believes that the Count Attorney's office should continue to aggresivley prosecute those who continue to enter the country illegally, engage in human smuggling and engage in drug smuggling. Click the embedded video below to view the Public Service Announcement produced by PLEA .

SB 1070 Applies to Canadians Too

Canadians_Deported Recent protests in Phoenix related to the court battle over SB 1070 drew protests with many of the persons involved being bussed in from out of state. Two protestors took it upon themselves to hang a banner from a construction crane located in the downtown area which required the closure of several streets and tied up more than 70 law enforcement personnel for over two hours.

After the two subjects were arrested and booked, MCSO jail personnel discovered that one of the subjects was in the country illegally from Canada. It's possible that a Canadian has the unique distinction of being the first person deported under the provisions of SB 1070.

Listen Now! to comments aired on the Mike Broomhead show on July 30, 2010.

PLEA Comments on SB 1070 Ruling

judge_susan_bolton Many in the media are focused on what Judge Bolton "paused" from taking effect in SB1070. This "half-empty" perspective can cause many to miss what the judge left in and what is allowed to take place. Phoenix Police Officers have test-driven the main principle of SB1070 for the past two years. In the past, officers could make a discretionary phone call to ICE when a person contacted was believed to be in the country illegal (reasonable suspicion) AND that person was connected to a crime. This will continue under the new law.

Enforcing AZ’s New Immigration Law

Click Here to read the full article.

New Immigration Policy Concerns PLEA

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An officer contacted PLEA about the new PPD immigration policy and the training behind it.

Attached are two pages from the draft policy from PPD on the new immigration law. The section under "arrests", the way it is presented in the policy and the way it is being taught to officers, requires that "ALL arrested persons" - meaning whether there is reasonable suspicion to believe they are in the country illegally or not, are to have their status verified by ICE. This interpretation is confirmed by the following NOTE in the policy - "Presentation by the arrestee of presumptive identification....DOES NOT MEET the requirement to verify immigration status."

This creates a situation that is in conflict with SB1070 - everyone is presumed to be in the country legally, valid identification IS presumptive proof of legal status thus there is NO reason to contact ICE to verify legal presence in the country. This policy appears to deviate from the statewide video training provided by AzPost. This policy creates an unnecessary, costly, time-consuming burden that is beyond the intent of SB1070. It appears that this policy is written with the goal of causing the new law to fail or undermine its effectiveness.

Under this policy, I stop Mr. Smith for failing to signal while driving a vehicle and turning onto a street. I contact Mr. Smith and he gives me an Arizona drivers license. I run Mr. Smith and find that he has NO warrants but is driving on a suspended drivers license. I have a choice: I can book Mr. Smith or I can write Mr. Smith a ticket. If I choose to write him a ticket, I have to verify his status with ICE even though he has provided me a valid ID that was verified on my car computer. Even though there is NO reason to believe Mr. Smith is in the country illegally, this new policy is forcing me, and every other officer for every other similar stop or situation, to call ICE to verify legal status. This is unnecessary, takes time, costly, and foolish.

Under this policy, I get a call to a location where I find Mr. Sanchez illegally dumping trash. Upon contact with Mr. Sanchez, he provides me with a valid Arizona drivers license. I run Mr. Sanchez on the car computer and he has NO outstanding warrants. I have a choice: I can book Mr. Sanchez or I can write Mr. Sanchez a ticket. If I choose to write him a ticket, I have to verify his status with ICE even though he has provided me a valid ID that was verified on my car computer. Even though there is NO reason to believe Mr. Sanchez is in the country illegally, this new policy is forcing me, and every other officer for similar stops or situations, to call ICE to verify legal status. This is unnecessary, costly, and foolish.

This new immigration enforcement philosophy seems to be showing up in other Arizona police policies. On July 19, 2010 I received the following from the Glendale PD union president Justin Harris:

"I recently attended my departments SB 1070 training and I was surprised to learn that Glendale is telling all of its Officer’s that we have to call in and verify everyone’s immigration status even after they provide us with a valid form of ID that meets the “presumptive” clause in the bill. Has any other labor group expressed this concern to you? I thought the reason the presumptive ID clause was written in the statue was so that we didn’t have to call and verify everybody’s status? If this holds true then I’m sure the Feds call center will be overwhelmed and it will cause an undue detention of citizens who have a valid form of ID. Is this the administration's way to work against the bill?"

It seems that the Arizona Chiefs of Police (ACOPS) has moved from lawlessness in NOT proactively addressing the crime of illegal immigration to malfeasance in subjecting front-line officers and the citizens they serve to needless and abusive immigration checks when NO reasonable suspicion exists that the law enforcement contact provides reasonable suspicions that a person is in the county illegally. This policy flies in the face of the intent of SB1070 and appears to be a dangerous and foolish attempt by police managers to undermine the bills effectiveness in keeping Arizona safe from the crime of illegal immigration. One wonders if the chiefs will mandate that every person contacted be patted down for weapons when no reasonable suspicion exists that the contacted person is armed.

The author of the original PPD policy, Lt. Larry Jacobs, communicated to me that the draft policy that was sent out is not consistent with what he wrote and was changed to its present form by PPD attorneys. It is unfortunate, but not surprising, that this policy was produced without any input from PLEA - the 2400 men and women who are tasked with enforcing this new statute in a front-line capacity.

PLEA opposes and is alarmed by this new immigration policy.

Click Here to view page 5 of the new policy.

Click Here to view page 6 of the new policy.

Click Here to view the Arizona Department of Public Safety's new immigration policy. It is a common-sense approach to enforcing SB 1070.