Given the history of our city and our department, the Los Angeles Police Department makes it a priority to build relationships with LA’s diverse communities. Since last November’s presidential election, and the widespread protests and fears we’ve seen and heard in its aftermath, we’ve had to step up relationship-building – especially in our immigrant communities, where anxiety has been greatest.
This is a city of 400 square miles and more than four million people – 500,000 of them undocumented – and we’re determined to have meaningful conversations with immigrants in every corner of the city. To date, that’s meant more than 150 meetings this year; as chief of the LAPD’s Central Bureau, I’ve been to a couple-dozen myself.
These meetings are not police forums. They are held in various settings: schools, city council field offices, churches, hospital conference rooms. We’ve had a few at police stations but generally avoid them because we don’t want to discourage attendance by undocumented immigrants, who might worry about stepping into a law enforcement facility.
The meetings are designed to facilitate real conversation, and to send a clear message to the community – first and foremost, that the LAPD is not responsible for enforcing the federal civil immigration laws used to detain and remove undocumented immigrants from the United States.
We do not work with the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency (Ice) on immigration-related violations. And we don’t go with Ice when they knock on doors or conduct field enforcement. They are a law enforcement agency with their own mission, and they are not going to be supported by LAPD in that mission.
We don’t stop there. At these forums, we talk to people about their rights. For example, if Ice agents come to your door and knock without a warrant, you don’t have to let them in. The mayor’s office and some advocacy groups have provided “know your rights” cards to explain this, and we’re already seeing this lesson has been learned in some communities.
LAPD’s confidence in this message is the product of our history. Since 1979, we’ve worked and served under the policy specified in Special Order 40, which means our officers will not stop and detain an individual with the sole purpose of trying to determine their immigration status.
Special Order 40 has withstood scrutiny and proved its worth. It should give communities confidence that they can report crimes to us, either as a victim or a witness, without being in jeopardy because of their immigration status.
We see our approach as a form of crime prevention. Our chief, Charlie Beck, often talks about how, when people are afraid, they are driven into the shadows – and shadow communities are created. Such communities are prime ground for criminal predators to thrive, because they know that someone who is worried about their legal status is less likely to report a crime or identify a criminal suspect.
Fear and anxiety
I’ve been with the LAPD for 29 years. I’m a third-generation Mexican American, raised in Northeast LA. Twenty-nine years ago, our department was not as diverse as it is today.
Early in my career I worked in Rampart Division. We were working on a problem in the Cambodian community, but never really resolved it because we couldn’t communicate with the family. It made you feel helpless, which is the worst thing for a cop – the reason you join the police department is to have the power to help and protect people.
Today we have officers of Cambodian heritage, so we wouldn’t have this same problem. Next year we’ll be majority Latino, which is a first for the department.
But for all our diversity, the LAPD is facing a real issue right now. Despite all of the meetings and messages, we’re seeing feelings of anxiety and fear in our immigrant communities. Some of this hesitancy is coming from kids, and it’s heartbreaking.
Our officers report seeing tears in some children’s eyes, and even fear. This is different – most of the time, when kids see officers, they want to touch badges or our equipment belts. But it’s also understandable. Children in this city have seen parents, family members or neighbours removed and arrested, and they’re unsure about law enforcement.
In our roll calls and squad meetings, we’ve been talking a lot about this fear and anxiety. And we’ve been reminding each other: take a little extra time with the people you encounter; try to understand clearly what they’re feeling and what they’re asking.
Our conversations aren’t just with the community. We’ve built a working group with key stakeholders in immigration law and advocacy that has already met a half-dozen times. We spend most of the time making sure we’re on the same page, sending very clear and consistent messages to communities.
And we also talk to Ice, to keep open lines of communication and avoid confusion. One very important issue is that Ice report to us when they’re conducting enforcement – because when they take action, it’s LAPD that is going to start getting phone calls. We want to be able to tell people this is Ice, and there are no LAPD personnel with them.
In these times when there are so many things to worry about, the LAPD shouldn’t be one of them. Our effectiveness as a police department depends on having the trust of its communities. We’re only a phone call away.
- Robert N Arcos is the Los Angeles Police Department’s deputy chief commanding officer. His article first appeared on the Zócalo Public Square website, and this edited version is published with permission
- Follow the Guardian’s Inequality Project on Twitter here, or email us at inequality.project@theguardian.com