PHOENIX (AP) — Arizona police officers will be taught that race
and ethnicity cannot be used when enforcing a new illegal
immigration law, the state’s top police training official said
Wednesday — without offering a definition of reasonable suspicion
that someone is in the country illegally.
“Race is not an (indication) of criminality,” Lyle Mann said,
referring to the state’s large Hispanic population.
The Arizona Peace Officer Standards and Training Board voted
unanimously Wednesday to adopt a framework for a video training
course that will be distributed to all 15,000 Arizona police
officers.
The five-page framework is an outline of the agency’s plan for
the video. It doesn’t include a script or details of exactly what
officers will be told.
The video will emphasize the importance of professionalism,
ethics and integrity, as well as an officer’s duty to protect civil
rights.
Retired federal immigration agents will describe how federal
officers are trained to avoid racial profiling and the documents
that immigrants are required to carry.
Officers will be taught how to contact federal immigration
authorities or local officers certified by the federal government
to determine someone’s immigration status.
The training will be distributed to all 170 police agencies by
the end of June. Police bosses will decide the best way to teach
their officers, but there is no requirement that officers watch the
video before the law takes effect July 29.
Appearing in Washington with Mexico’s President Felipe Calderon,
President Barack Obama on Wednesday stepped up his criticism of
Arizona’s illegal immigration law, calling it “misdirected” and
warning that it has the potential to be applied in a discriminatory
fashion. Obama called for overhauling the nation’s immigration
laws.
The measure has come under fire by civil rights groups and some
police officials who argue that it invites racial profiling of
Hispanics.
It requires police enforcing another law to verify a person’s
immigration status if there’s “reasonable suspicion” they are in
the U.S. illegally.
Mann said officers will be reminded that the rest of the nation
is watching Arizona.
“How it goes here in Arizona is going to be an (indication) of
what it’s going to do around the country, and that needs to be
brought out,” he said.
The law restricts the use of race, color or national origin as
the basis for triggering immigration questions. But critics worry
officers will still be influenced by their preconceived ideas that
illegal immigrants look Hispanic.
“The way the law is written, it almost leads officers to do
racial profiling, while at the same time saying, ‘Don’t do it,'”
Phoenix Police Chief Jack Harris told The Associated Press last
week.
Two police officers, one each from Phoenix and Tucson, have
filed lawsuits asking judges to overturn Arizona’s law. They argue
in part that the law can’t be enforced without profiling.
Gov. Jan Brewer has defended the measure, saying profiling is
illegal and won’t be tolerated. She ordered the training course be
created when she signed the law April 23.
Supporters say there are plenty of factors aside from race that
can indicate someone is in the country illegally. They say, for
example, an officer would have reasonable suspicion if he
encounters a driver without identification who gives conflicting
information while traveling through a known smuggling corridor.
Rep. John Kavanagh, a Fountain Hills Republican and key
supporter of the measure in the Legislature, said police officers
routinely form reasonable suspicion that someone has committed a
crime.
“We’re bringing our officers up to speed in a skill they already
have but applying it in a new area,” said Kavanagh, a former police
officer. “It should be a rather seamless transition.”
Arizona’s law was passed in part with the lobbying muscle of
unions representing rank-and-file police officers who argued that
they should be allowed to arrest illegal immigrants they
encounter.
It was opposed by police bosses who worried it would be
expensive to implement and would destroy the trust they’ve
developed in Hispanic neighborhoods.
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Associated Press writer Julie Pace in Washington contributed to
this report.
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