Law Enforcement Officials Support Partial Injunction on SB1070

The Legal Law Enforcement Engagement Initiative represents a consortium of the chiefs of police from America's major cities and other law enforcement professional organizations.  The organization is engaged in the debate over comprehensive immigration reform and SB1070.

They overwhelmingly support the partial federal injunction on SB1070:

U.S. District Court Judge Susan Bolton’s decision today to issue a partial injunction against Arizona’s controversial immigration law, SB 1070, is a victory for law enforcement leaders around the country, who have been among the law’s most vocal opponents. The injunction covers the provision of the law requiring police officers in Arizona to ask anyone for papers during a stop, detention or arrest if “reasonable suspicion” existed that the person was undocumented—a provision which would have diverted policing resources away from fighting violent crime and destroyed the public trust between residents and law enforcement that makes community policing effective.

They have also released a background memo which highlights the overwhelming opposition to SB1070 that local law enforcement officials nationwide have registered.

In April the Police Executive Research Forum, at the request of Phoenix Police Chief Jack Harris, sent a delegation of some of the nation’s leading city police chiefs—including Los Angeles Police Department Chief Charlie Beck, Philadelphia Police Commissioner and President of PERF, Charles Ramsey, and Chief Rob Davis of the San Jose Police Department and President of the U.S. and Canada Major Cities Chiefs Association—to meet with Attorney General Eric Holder and ask the federal government to prevent the law from going into effect. Their effort was successful, and the suit filed by the Department of Justice included declarations from Phoenix Police Chief Jack Harris, Tucson Police Chief Roberto Villas nor  and Santa Cruz County Sheriff Tony Estrada. National organizations including the National Latino Peace Officers Association, the National Black Police Association and the Hispanic American  Police Command Officers Association  have passed resolutions or issued statements condemning the law, and the Arizona Association of Chiefs of Police  issued a forceful declaration opposing S.B. 1070.

The full report can be seen here.