President Donald Trump has consistently drawn support from police unions but that appears to be faltering.
The New York Times reported Friday that police chiefs are fuming over the tactics being used by ICE.
Last week, at a press conference with Minnesota police chiefs, the leaders lined up behind a podium before it was revealed that each of them there had one of their own officers detained by ICE exclusively because of their race. In many cases it continued to escalate until the officer informed the agents that they were law enforcement.
The same thing happened in Maine last week where a U.S. citizen who served as a corrections officer was nabbed from his vehicle and taken into custody until they allowed him to show his identification. He was shouting that he was a citizen and an officer but federal agents ignored the claim. They left his unlocked vehicle running on the street as they carted him away.
The furious chief there called it “bush-league policing.”
The top brass also said that they're getting “endless complaints” about the way federal officers behave.
In Illinois, an ICE officer was charged with misdemeanor battery after someone filming a federal agent was attacked by the officer. It's unclear how many other agents could be charged in similar incidents. Such a conviction doesn't necessarily prevent employment with ICE or CBP, however, the website says.
The Times wrote, "The criticism aimed at federal agencies is tinged with the irony that for years, the federal government was the nation’s policing watchdog. But under President Trump, the Justice Department has walked away from efforts to force deeply troubled departments to improve — efforts that some chiefs had called intrusive and heavy handed."
Such a practice has become known as the "Kavanaugh Stop," named after U.S. Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh who wrote in an official ruling that federal agents aren't arresting citizens and if by mistake they're detained they're being released quickly.
in 2020 Minnesota began an effort to reform its police department after Officer Derek Chauvin choked and killed George Floyd as a crowd begged him to stop and filmed the incident on video. There have been enormous strides to shift to a community policing model with deescalation training.
Now, all of that is "going down the toilet," said Chief Kelly McCarthy of Mendota Heights. “We do look good by comparison — but that won’t last because people are really frustrated.”
McCarthy said that when off duty, she volunteered to help out as a legal observer outside of a Spanish language Alcoholics Anonymous meeting near her house. She wasn't in uniform. That's when a CBP agent struck.
“He told me to get a job, and that I was a paid agitator,” she said. “I would have been embarrassed if he had been one of my officers.”
“In order for police to be accepted in communities, they have to have permission to police those communities from the people who live there,” said Republican Mayor Jerry P. Dyer of Fresno, Calif.
The federal agents are "not trusted because of the manner in which they operate,” he added.
“It’s impacting our brand as police officers, our brand of how hard we work to build trust,” said Brooklyn Park Police Chief Mark Bruley.
Behind the scenes, the Times said that departments have decided to distance themselves, showing that the men and women in blue aren't the same as the mask-wearing U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers and Border Patrol agents.
"The city of St. Paul, Minn., has distributed photos showing what their police, fire and animal services uniforms look like," the Times said.
“St. Paul Police Department does not ask people about their immigration status” and “cannot impede or interfere with federal agents,” one advisory said.
In some communities, problems remain with local police, said DeRay Mckesson, who now serves as the executive director of Campaign Zero, which seeks to reduce police violence.
“ICE has helped people understand that the system is broken, that it’s not just one or two bad officers,” said Mckesson.
“People are for the first time are like, ‘OK, the government’s lying to me,’” McKesson added. “Before, that would have sounded like a conspiracy theory.”
Former police chief, Brandon del Pozo told the Times that it's a unique opportunity for local departments to step up and show a contrast.
“Never before in our lifetime have they had a better foil than they have in ICE,” wrote del Pozo in Vital City, a Columbia Law School journal. “The nation’s attention is rightly focused on flagrant abuses at the federal level that constantly dominate the news and provide a clear moral compass for how police shouldn’t behave."
Read the full report here.
