Sunday, July 01, 2007
Immigration enforcement earns big bucks for Bisbee
Immigration enforcement earns big bucks for Bisbee
BISBEE — The selection of vehicles up for bidding at the June 23 Bisbee police auction was enough to make any used car salesman envious.
There were sports cars, like a 1998 red Ford Mustang convertible; luxury models, like a 1995 Lincoln Town Car; and plenty of vans and trucks.
Some were surplus city vehicles, sold off to make room for new upgrades. But according to Sgt. Taron Maddox, spokesman for the Bisbee Police Department, the majority had been seized after local officers found them carrying illegal immigrants northward through the city limits.
By the end of the auction, 55 of the vehicles had been sold, raising a total of $56,806 for city coffers. When added to the approximately $220,000 the U.S. Department of Homeland Security promised the city earlier in the year, this meant that Bisbee has raised a quarter of a million dollars so far in 2007 by helping to fight immigration-related crime.
This sum represents a significant chunk of change for the city, which began the 2006-2007 fiscal year with a total budget of $18.1 million and a police department budget of $1.77 million.
However, some local residents complain that the financial incentives for enforcing immigration law along state highways encourage the police to act as a revenue generator for the city while distracting them from more pressing local security needs.
Double duty
According to City Manager Steve Pauken, the funds offered by Homeland Security come as part of Operation Stonegarden, a program that helps local authorities in the southwest recover costs incurred from enforcing border security.
So far in 2007, Bisbee has been given two $100,000 grants plus approximately $20,000 for a police radio upgrade, Pauken said.
“Homeland Security extends funds for its Operation Stonegarden to a lot of law enforcement agencies in Southern Arizona, but the agency that receives the most money is the Bisbee police,” he said.
“We get more money than the Tucson Police Department, more than the Sierra Vista P.D., more than the Douglas P.D., you name it. Pick an agency and we get the most money, and that’s because we do the most effective job.”
Bisbee resident Ken Wallace, who owns a home and a business in the Brewery Gulch area of Old Bisbee, believes the local cops are less effective at cracking down on the real public security problems facing the city.
“I’m a lot less concerned about illegals than I am about the meth heads up on Brewery Gulch,” said Wallace, who feels that immigration enforcement has taken police attention away from town and focused it on areas like Highway 80 along the Lavender Pit mine.
“(Stopping carloads of illegal immigrants) is a cash cow for the city, but if the money’s not being used to provide services to the citizens, who cares?” Wallace said. “A lot of people will tell you that all the Bisbee Police Department is willing to do is to sit out by the pit and stop people who look Mexican.”
Pauken, however, says that immigration enforcement is not an either/or proposition for the city, since officers working on Operation Stonegarden are working overtime hours, not during their regular shifts.
“The side benefit that a lot of people don’t realize is that if we have a call, those officers who are working overtime on Stonegarden can support the officers who are working the regular shift,” Pauken said.
“It actually puts more Bisbee cops on the street rather than less. It’s a winning situation for the city of Bisbee.”
Asked if police officers feel any pressure from the city to work the Operation Stonegarden shifts, Maddox said, “Absolutely not.”
A touchy issue in the past
Wallace’s suggestion that Bisbee police use racial profiling to stop carloads of illegal immigrants is not new.
Similar allegations in 2000 led to a series of public meetings and an investigation of the Bisbee Police Department by the Arizona Attorney General’s Office. The investigation ultimately found no evidence of wrongdoing, but even so, the city’s insurance provider announced that it would not grant coverage against a racial profiling suit.
Immigration-related car seizures became an issue in the 2000 mayoral race, with the eventual winner, Dan Beauchamp, promising to end the practice.
Making good on his pledge, Beauchamp announced in January 2001 that the city would no longer seize and sell vehicles. Instead, he said, the Border Patrol would have to take charge of both the vehicles and the illegal immigrants that were stopped by local cops.
“We’re getting out of the used car business,” Beauchamp said while announcing the policy change.
Beauchamp went on to serve two terms as mayor before stepping down at the end of 2004. Reached at his new home in North Carolina, the former mayor expressed some ambivalence about Bisbee’s return to a more aggressive immigration enforcement role.
“Homeland Security policy puts a lot of pressure on communities to enforce the law against illegal entrants, and I don’t think it’s unreasonable for Bisbee to get its share of (the associated funds),” Beauchamp said.
“However, I think it is reasonable for Bisbee residents and the City Council to determine with the police whether this border surveillance is interfering with the primary duty of being responsive to local policing needs.”
In regard to the vehicle seizures, Beauchamp’s successor, Ron Oertle, said the June 23 car auction did not necessarily suggest that the city is back in the business.
A major reason for the sale, the mayor said, was that the city needed to get rid of an accumulation of surplus municipal vehicles. And Sgt. Maddux noted that a number of the seized vehicles were 1990s models that had sat in the impound lot for several years.
As for questions about the police department’s ability to serve both the people of Bisbee and the Department of Homeland Security, Oertle said he had seen no conflict.
“Is there a policy to back off on local crime? Absolutely not,” he said.
BY Jonathan Clark
Via : www.svherald.com
There were sports cars, like a 1998 red Ford Mustang convertible; luxury models, like a 1995 Lincoln Town Car; and plenty of vans and trucks.
Some were surplus city vehicles, sold off to make room for new upgrades. But according to Sgt. Taron Maddox, spokesman for the Bisbee Police Department, the majority had been seized after local officers found them carrying illegal immigrants northward through the city limits.
By the end of the auction, 55 of the vehicles had been sold, raising a total of $56,806 for city coffers. When added to the approximately $220,000 the U.S. Department of Homeland Security promised the city earlier in the year, this meant that Bisbee has raised a quarter of a million dollars so far in 2007 by helping to fight immigration-related crime.
This sum represents a significant chunk of change for the city, which began the 2006-2007 fiscal year with a total budget of $18.1 million and a police department budget of $1.77 million.
However, some local residents complain that the financial incentives for enforcing immigration law along state highways encourage the police to act as a revenue generator for the city while distracting them from more pressing local security needs.
Double duty
According to City Manager Steve Pauken, the funds offered by Homeland Security come as part of Operation Stonegarden, a program that helps local authorities in the southwest recover costs incurred from enforcing border security.
So far in 2007, Bisbee has been given two $100,000 grants plus approximately $20,000 for a police radio upgrade, Pauken said.
“Homeland Security extends funds for its Operation Stonegarden to a lot of law enforcement agencies in Southern Arizona, but the agency that receives the most money is the Bisbee police,” he said.
“We get more money than the Tucson Police Department, more than the Sierra Vista P.D., more than the Douglas P.D., you name it. Pick an agency and we get the most money, and that’s because we do the most effective job.”
Bisbee resident Ken Wallace, who owns a home and a business in the Brewery Gulch area of Old Bisbee, believes the local cops are less effective at cracking down on the real public security problems facing the city.
“I’m a lot less concerned about illegals than I am about the meth heads up on Brewery Gulch,” said Wallace, who feels that immigration enforcement has taken police attention away from town and focused it on areas like Highway 80 along the Lavender Pit mine.
“(Stopping carloads of illegal immigrants) is a cash cow for the city, but if the money’s not being used to provide services to the citizens, who cares?” Wallace said. “A lot of people will tell you that all the Bisbee Police Department is willing to do is to sit out by the pit and stop people who look Mexican.”
Pauken, however, says that immigration enforcement is not an either/or proposition for the city, since officers working on Operation Stonegarden are working overtime hours, not during their regular shifts.
“The side benefit that a lot of people don’t realize is that if we have a call, those officers who are working overtime on Stonegarden can support the officers who are working the regular shift,” Pauken said.
“It actually puts more Bisbee cops on the street rather than less. It’s a winning situation for the city of Bisbee.”
Asked if police officers feel any pressure from the city to work the Operation Stonegarden shifts, Maddox said, “Absolutely not.”
A touchy issue in the past
Wallace’s suggestion that Bisbee police use racial profiling to stop carloads of illegal immigrants is not new.
Similar allegations in 2000 led to a series of public meetings and an investigation of the Bisbee Police Department by the Arizona Attorney General’s Office. The investigation ultimately found no evidence of wrongdoing, but even so, the city’s insurance provider announced that it would not grant coverage against a racial profiling suit.
Immigration-related car seizures became an issue in the 2000 mayoral race, with the eventual winner, Dan Beauchamp, promising to end the practice.
Making good on his pledge, Beauchamp announced in January 2001 that the city would no longer seize and sell vehicles. Instead, he said, the Border Patrol would have to take charge of both the vehicles and the illegal immigrants that were stopped by local cops.
“We’re getting out of the used car business,” Beauchamp said while announcing the policy change.
Beauchamp went on to serve two terms as mayor before stepping down at the end of 2004. Reached at his new home in North Carolina, the former mayor expressed some ambivalence about Bisbee’s return to a more aggressive immigration enforcement role.
“Homeland Security policy puts a lot of pressure on communities to enforce the law against illegal entrants, and I don’t think it’s unreasonable for Bisbee to get its share of (the associated funds),” Beauchamp said.
“However, I think it is reasonable for Bisbee residents and the City Council to determine with the police whether this border surveillance is interfering with the primary duty of being responsive to local policing needs.”
In regard to the vehicle seizures, Beauchamp’s successor, Ron Oertle, said the June 23 car auction did not necessarily suggest that the city is back in the business.
A major reason for the sale, the mayor said, was that the city needed to get rid of an accumulation of surplus municipal vehicles. And Sgt. Maddux noted that a number of the seized vehicles were 1990s models that had sat in the impound lot for several years.
As for questions about the police department’s ability to serve both the people of Bisbee and the Department of Homeland Security, Oertle said he had seen no conflict.
“Is there a policy to back off on local crime? Absolutely not,” he said.
BY Jonathan Clark
Via : www.svherald.com
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