June 3, 2011 | 12:27 PM | By

LAPD chief on Secure Communities: ‘It tends to cause a divide’

FILED UNDER: Politics/Justice, Chief Charlie Beck, LAPD, Secure Communities, Sheriff Lee Baca, Special Order 40

Photo by Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images

Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck in front of a poster seeking information on Dodger Stadium beating suspects, May 17, 2011

Los Angeles’ chief of police is less than gung-ho about a controversial immigration enforcement program known as Secure Communities, a federal fingerprint-sharing program that has drawn complaints from some law enforcement and state officials, while it is embraced by others.

During a radio interview yesterday with KPCC’s Patt Morrison, the Los Angeles Police Department’s Chief Charlie Beck expressed some of the same concerns that more vocal critics of the program have voiced, among them Sheriff Michael Hennessey of San Francisco. An excerpt from the Beck interview:

The thing that the San Francisco sheriff worries about, and that many people in Los Angeles worry about, is that it causes a huge divide between a large portion of our population. Because whether people agree with it or not, a large portion of L.A.’s population are immigrants, and many of them are undocumented.

So it tends to cause a divide there where there’s a lack of trust, a lack of reporting, a lack of cooperation with police. You know, I cannot prosecute crimes without witnesses…

Beck said that the federal program does not interfere with Los Angeles police’s Special Order 40, which bars officers from inquiring about the immigration status of those they detain. He went on to say that while the ability to find and deport violent criminals is a benefit to the federal program, it’s a detriment if it causes immigrants to lose trust in police, and that more transparency is needed.

Audio of the entire interview can be heard here.

Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca has come out in favor of Secure Communities, writing supportively of the program in an opinion piece last month in the Los Angeles Times:

The program enables law enforcement agencies to identify criminals who are here illegally and allows the federal government to target those who have committed serious crimes for deportation so they no longer pose a threat to our communities.

Secure Communities allows for the fingerprints of people booked into local jails to be compared with those in a federal immigration database, with immigration authorities alerted if there is a match.

Immigrant advocates have complained that while the program is intended to net deportable criminals, many of those who wind up deported as a result don’t have a criminal record. Among the program’s individual critics have been people like Isaura Garcia, a woman who called the LAPD with a domestic violence complaint and wound up in deportation proceedings.

The California Assembly recently approved a bill that would allow individual jurisdictions to opt out of the program, something they are unable to do now.

  • Marjoscody

    If the immigrants would have come here legally their wouldn’t be this problem. Divide or not they are here against the law and the American citizens have the right to be protected. If the Government would enforce that law, maybe we wouldn’t have such an issue.

  • http://profiles.google.com/publicservant54 Public Servant

    Hey Chief……WE’RE ALL IMMIGRANTS YOU TOOL!  Illegals are just that ILLEGAL, you tard!  Seriously, how do we keep getting these idiots as police chiefs? Los Angeles is all jacked up because people like Charlie Beck have their heads in their asses! Seriously, what a complete freaking tool! 

  • Anonymous

    I see that Mayor Tony V. has pulled the strings on his puppet police chief again.  Where does it end?  The City of Los Angeles cannot even provide adequate services to its legal citizens.  Do you think that the large illegal population may have contributed to the financial woes?. 

  • Equal Justice

    Chief,

    Why are you exempting one class of criminal (illegal ailen), form arrest. You expect your officers to arrest people for vandelism, shoplifting and drunk driving (all misdomeaners), but exemp illegal ailens from arrest (misdomenor crime). What happened to everyone is equal under the Law?

    Currently the state of California has over 220,000 illegal ailens in prison for fellony crime. The state is going to spen over $1 billion dollars to keep these criminals in custody this year. How many of them were allowed to remain here and make Californians victims, because you refused to enforce the Law? How many Californians and Angelinos have been victims of serious crimes (Rape, Robbery & Murder, because you violate your othe to uphold the Law?

    The state supreme court just upheld a ruling that California must release 30,000 + criminals from state prison. Police chiefs from around the state know this will cause an increase in crime. How many of these will be illegal ailens, and how many form Los Angeles?

    Why is it you just exempted illegal ailens form having thier cars towed at DUI checkpoints, but are still going to impound cars from americans? Why do you continue to penalize californians, and reward illegal ailens?

    The City of Los Angeles claims it is going broke. So haow much does it cost the police department to respond, arrest, house and prosicute illegal ailens every year? How much does the city spend on Fire Department to respon to call from illegal ailens (medical & fire)? What about the cost to educate illegail ailens?

    Los Angeles county admits to paying over $52 million a month in welfair to illegal ailens! How much of this is caused by you not enforcing the law? 

  • Cklapd

    Seriously Beck!!! I thought when we got rid of Bratton things would improve. Way to go political puppet.

  • RMHolb

    Chief Beck, your Dad wouldn’t have gone along with this. Neither would you, that is, if you still had Civil Service “protection” like Chief Gates did. You could do what’s right rather than what’s politically correct. Sorry for that. But the ignorant L.A. population bought the hype and voted out what could have made you an unpoliticized Chief of Police. You know from working Rampart while I was also there that when every illegal immigrant who could be a victim was identified first and deported, you wouldn’t need “the victim” to testify. Would you? No illegals, no illegal victims. In police work, first things first.

  • Cklapd

    It seems to me that goal of the police department is to make the city a safer place to live. However, it seems with this regime that it is more important to be politically correct. The lapd leadership expect the officers to do there job in an unbiased manner, but they on the other hand choose to ignore laws that don’t seem popular with the “potential” future illegal voting class. Stand up for Americans. That’s what we want and expect. do what’s right Beck if u want some respect!!!!

  • Panerai909

    Haha Beck’s a company man not a leader. What do you expect? WEAK!!!!

  • http://profile.yahoo.com/DMZL7O7SYBPOSJUSCCU5DYAL4U Starzzguitar

    Charlie Beck is Latino. Now it all makes sense. Guess that says it all.

  • RMHolb

    Well, he’s not Latino, just politicized almost beyond recognition. He’ll do what he can, but in no way to threaten his term in office.

  • Jstnrcs

    Beck isn’t a fool. But he is trying to operate under one who is, that is, the Mayor and a quite liberal Police Commission. It’s a type rope with loose ends.