Racial profiling costs Arizona county $22 million

Is this where Pacific Police received their immigration enforcement training?

Here is a question for you: If I remember correctly, at the time Pacific was racially profiling Latinos, one of the city's finest was receiving training from an Arizona police agency. He shared his wisdom with fellow officers in a memorandum instructing them that, if a Latino said their interrogations were illegal, that was reason enough to detain them. In other words, trying to assert your civil rights is an offence subject to arrest.

Since then, two Washington courts have ruled that stopping drivers for a broken taillight doesn't enable the police officer to ask about immigration status. The instruction: If you stopped them for the taillight, deal with the taillight issue, not their skin color.

Here's what CNN reported today:

Sheriff Joe Arpaio has cost Maricopa County, AZ at least $22 million for his use of racial and ethnic profiling. While he is appealing the decision, the court has ordered a monitor to oversee retraining in the sheriff's office and the creation of a community advisory board.

During the next 18 months, according to CNN, the county will have to spend nearly $22 million for the monitor and the retraining and then another $10 for follow-up. That's not a whole lot of money, because the county, which includes Phoenix, has a total budget of $2.2 billion, according to CNN.

I don't recall whether it was this Arizona agency that provided the training for Pacific's officers. This would be a good time for the city council to raise that question, determine how many officers received training, and whether any of the officers who may have been influenced directly or indirectly from the training are still on the Pacific police force.

This news breaks at a time when the City of Pacific is discussing creating the position of Chief of Police and eliminating the position of Public Safety Director. John Calkins has been the city's Public Safety Director for 14 years, although he frequently wears a police uniform and in the past has worn a sidearm and referred to himself as the Police Chief. It is my understanding that he is not a commissioned officer.

If any of this information is incorrect, please notify me at dancingpotter@gmail.com, and I will print a correction.

Robert Smith
Publisher

Letter to Auburn Reporter

On September 5, 2014, the Auburn Reporter carried a report on Page 4 under the headline, "Former Pacific mayor officially cleared of 'corruption' allegations." The article referred to Richard Hildreth, an electrician who served as mayor for eight years. Hildreth was quoted as saying  the claims were part of his opponent's negative campaigning and "deception of our citizens."

I responded to the report with the following letter to the editor:

Your Sept. 5 (2014) article about Richard Hildreth, the former Pacific Mayor, being "officially cleared of corruption allegations" drew my interest. Apparently the state auditor and king county prosecutor found no grounds for bringing charges against Mr. Hildreth.

Those findings don't change the obvious:

Mr. Hildreth's legacy was a city so politically weakened that the unbelieveable occurred. He was unseated by an unqualified write-in candidate who practically destroyed the city, and still managed to maintain very strong minority support when he was recalled.

If the word, "corruption" doesn't apply here, would you accept "decay?"

Robert Smith
Member, Pacific city council, 2002-2004
Publisher, speedtrapcity.blogspot.com

Police department shaken by car impound scandal

King City, CA— Four police officers in this central California town, including the recently retired police chief and the acting chief—have been arrested following an investigation into how the department had been impounding vehicles of poor Hispanic people. With announcement of the arrests, one-third of the department's officers are under investigation. The cars were towed and sold or given to some officers when the owners couldn't pay the fees. Readers may find the Associated Press report at http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/police-officers-arrested-car-impound-scheme-22674552.

Possible relevance to the City of Pacific lies in Pacific's impound policies, which, at least in the recent past, could dispossess low income individuals of their vehicles if they could not afford impound fees. Readers are directed to the Speed Trap City blog of October 4, 2013,entitled Les Miserables and the City of Pacific.