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SALT LAKE CITY -- On the heels of Gov. Gary Herbert's immigration roundtable at the capitol Tuesday, one disagreement among participants -- and those involved in illegal immigration issues -- was among members of law enforcement.
Officers are trained to uphold the law, but there's disagreement on how and if they can do that without putting race in the middle of it.
"I have great confidence in every single officer that works within this state that they go out and do their job with integrity and honesty," said Salt Lake City Police Chief Chris Burbank, but he's concerned an immigration law could force officers to compromise those principles.
Burbank expressed concerns that an immigration bill would result in racial profiling. He says when an officer conducts a traffic stop, it may be difficult to check someone's legal status without using race, ethnicity or bias.
Burbank says the only way to avoid that is having a fair and equal system where officers ask everyone for their citizenship status.
"Otherwise when we leave it as this arbitrary discretion, how do you ever get to that point without interjecting bias?" Burbank said. "That's where my concern comes in."
Arrests in Ogden Jan.-May 2010
| Hispanic | Non-Hispanic | Unknown | |
|---|---|---|---|
| <b>January | |||
| Adult | 27.2% | 67.6% | 5.2% |
| Juvenile | 59.3% | 35.2% | 5.5% |
| <b>February | |||
| Adult | 28.1% | 66.8% | 5.2% |
| Juvenile | 52% | 42.4% | 5.6% |
| <b>March | |||
| Adult | 29% | 68.3% | 2.8% |
| Juvenile | 46.9% | 45.1% | 8.1% |
| <b>April | |||
| Adult | 29.2% | 66.2% | 4.6% |
| Juvenile | 59.3% | 38.9% | 1.8% |
| <b>May | |||
| Adult | 30.1% | 62.8% | 6.5% |
| Juvenile | 51.4% | 46.7% | 1.9% |
| <b>Total | |||
| Adult | 28.9% | 66.3% | 4.8% |
| Juvenile | 53.8% | 41.6% | 4.6% |
| <b>Overall | 33.7% | 61.5% | 4.8% |
That's not so much an issue for his counterpart in Ogden. Police Chief Jon Greiner says there's nothing in Arizona's immigration law that requires law enforcement to do anything more than their job. He says their only requirement is to notify the federal government.
Greiner says he's offended when people assume officers racially profile. He says crime statistics regarding the number of Hispanic juveniles in his city are not a result of racial profiling.
"I'm offended that the first thing that people want to characterize law enforcement with is the racial profiling aspect of however we get to there," Greiner said.
In response to a Friday editorial in the Standard-Examiner about crime statistics among illegal immigrants, Greiner released arrest statistics for his city.
They show Hispanic youths under age 18 commit more than half the juvenile crimes in Ogden. Greiner says that's disproportionate to the number of Hispanics living there.
"We know how they were arrested, what they were arrested for, their age, everything else," Greiner said.
However, the numbers involving Hispanic youth do not track legal status.
One community leader told the newspaper some officers may target Hispanic kids, but Greiner says the numbers have been going up dramatically for the past 15 years.
"When I do the drive-by shooting, and I've arrested the guy for a drive-by shooting, I can't wait 'till the other race comes by and does their drive-by shooting," Greiner said. "It is what it is. We arrest those who are committing the [crime]."
He says the numbers do show a greater need for community outreach in his city.
"From a social aspect, I need to have my community's social networks be more involved with my Hispanic under 18 community. They're falling through the cracks," he said.
E-mail: syi@ksl.com
