What is Phoenix PD Ops. Order 1.4.3 and Why Should You Care?

Stop the excuses: End Operations Order 1.4
By Sandra J. Miller
January 13, 2007

Police Chief Jack Harris’ Nov. 5 appearance at the Ahwatukee Crime Forum left me underwhelmed. His title, badge and uniform don’t fool me; he’s a bureaucrat, pure and simple.

How do I know? Because he talks like a bureaucrat: “It’s not my job,” or “It’s somebody else’s fault,” or “We can’t do that.” Put that litany of tired excuses out of their misery.

Excuse No. 1: “Asking about citizenship is racial profiling/violating constitutional rights.”

Handling foreign nationals isn’t new to the Phoenix Police Department; they’ve done it since 1969 when the U.S. joined the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations. Article 36 requires police to notify the consulate of arrested foreign nationals. That means Phoenix police have had guidelines in place to identify those foreign nationals for more than three decades.

Excuse No. 2: “Immigration laws are complex.”

Immigration is no more “complex” than tax laws, divorce laws, custody laws and criminal laws. That’s why lawyers specialize.

Past “kid-glove” handling of immigration law violations were due to political correctness and pandering, not complexity or public safety principles. Immigration violations should be treated like any other crime and its violators like any other lawbreakers.

Excuse No. 3: “It’s a federal law.”

So are bank robbery and kidnapping, yet the Phoenix Police Department doesn’t tell callers, “We don’t handle federal crimes, you’ll have to call the FBI.”

Excuse No. 4: “Too time-consuming.”

Bureaucrat Phil Gordon claimed the Phoenix police can’t do immigration checks during routine encounters: “If we start down that road, our chief, and I concur with him, believes that’s all our officers will be doing, they’ll be tied up doing this.”

Translation: “The illegal alien numbers have increased so much during 20 years of sanctuary that we now have too many to arrest.”

Gordon and Harris don’t claim “there are too many drug dealers to arrest,” or “there are too many child molesters for us to lock up,” or “there are so many drunk drivers for us to get off the road.”

Excuse No. 5: “Officers will be 'waiting around’ for Immigration & Customs Enforcement.”

Police are primary responders (first on the scene and last to leave) and routinely “wait around” for auxiliary services like fire, paramedics, ambulance and bomb squad. After everyone else leaves a traffic accident, officers remove highway debris. Do officers radio for help, tell the citizen “the bomb squad is on the way,” and take off?

What is Operations Order 1.4.3?

We’ve heard it’s a “sanctuary” order, but what does that mean?

Phoenix Police are forbidden to call “immigration” on illegal aliens for felonies like reckless endangerment, homicide, DUI, hit and run, aggravated assault, armed robbery, rape, forgery, fraudulent schemes, lewd behavior, extortion, identity theft, breaking and entering, kidnapping, burglary, robbery, manslaughter, hostage-taking, child molestation, public drunkenness, assault and battery, assault with a deadly weapon, except under Arizona’s new human smuggling law.

Upon printing this crime list in the Ahwatukee Foothills News Nov. 14, the intent was for Jack Harris to correct a hoped “misinterpretation.” Since then, Harris hasn’t even sent a card. The obvious conclusion is that the Nov. 14 interpretation is 100 percent correct.

Misdemeanors give the illegal alien an even better deal. No call to immigration and they’re generally released after promising to appear in court. Many then promptly go AWOL.

Ops 1.4.3 “Services” for illegals:

• Phoenix police officers can send illegal aliens to Chicanos por la Causa and Friendly House for help with immigration, housing and social services. Both agencies receive funding from public taxes and the United Way.

• Phoenix detectives will help illegal aliens, claiming “I’m a crime victim”, get a U-Visa for themselves and family members to remain in the U.S.

Tell Councilman Greg Stanton your opinion on this vital Phoenix issue at (602) 262-7491 or greg.stanton@phoenix.gov.
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A computer analyst for 27 years, Sandra Miller moved to Ahwatukee Foothills 14 years ago and served as a director of the Mountain Park Ranch Homeowners Association. In 2004 she was a supporter of Proposition 200, which required proof of citizenship to register or vote.

Comments are welcome at redstatepatriot@hughes.net. Please include the title of the article as your subject line. Selected responses, in whole or part, may be published (appended to the article).

Published at http://www.ahwatukee.com/articles/police_2124___article.html/immigration_excuse.html
Reprinted with permission of the author.

Posted January 13, 2008 09:24 AM
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