There’s been a lot of chatter up in Los Angeles about the role of police in enforcing immigration law in light of the shooting death of Jamiel Shaw Jr. earlier this year.

Many anti-illegal immigration activists are pushing the Los Angeles Police Department to overhaul “Special Order 40” — a policy adopted by police in the 1970s that prohibits officers from investigating or arresting someone solely because of immigration status.

The LAPD says the policy doesn’t preclude them from working with federal immigration agents. And after checking with police departments in Orange County, we found that many departments here have similar guidelines laid out in their manuals as well. That’s because police officers aren’t trained, or necessarily authorized to handle immigration enforcement, according to a report by the Major Cities Chiefs.

In Orange County, however, some cities appear to be finding ways to get immigration laws enforced by arresting suspected illegal immigrants on accusations of violating municipal ordinances and getting them booked into a jail where their immigration status is checked. A sheriff’s deputy who helps screen inmates in the county jail said arrests on minor crimes amount to a small fraction of arrests.We asked readers whether they thought police should handle immigration in an online poll. Of 2,194 votes, 63 percent said police should arrest any illegal immigrant they contact on the beat, 26 percent said police should arrest illegal immigrants who break the law — not victims or witnesses — and 9 percent said the matter should be left to federal authorities.

To read a news story about this subject or to cast your vote, click here.

This entry was posted on Monday, May 19th, 2008 at 3:13 pm and is filed under Crime, Enforcement, Polls. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.