Washington (AP) – It’s a scene unfolding on the street Washington and Los Angeles Since President Donald Trump It was declared Crime emergency Deportation has been strengthened in capitals across the country: Federal Agentssome With a maskgrab someone off the street, bundle them into a car and drive them. Ignore questions from bystanders.
In an executive order signed this month, Trump said the District of Columbia’s “failure to maintain public order and security had a disastrous effect on the federal government’s ability to operate,” and that it was his duty as president to use federal agents to restore order. He threatens to expand these businesses – law enforcement obligations traditionally reserved for local police. Other cities.
Urban leaders, police officers and civil rights advocates say federal agents aren’t the best for this type of police. They are also concerned that the strategy will erode sensitive relationships with the communities in which local police serve.
Here are some important things to know about the differences between federal authorities and local police operations:
Federal agents usually don’t patrol cities
Federal agents have historically played less of a role in everyday policing. The work of the Federal Former S was created in 1789, but the number of agencies is small and focuses primarily on carrying out federal court work. Other US investigators focus primarily on interstate crime and national security issues.
Federal agents “usually do large-scale investigations. They don’t navigate daily public communications like police,” said Chuck Wexler, executive director of the Police Executive Research Forum.
US immigration and customs enforcement He has more traditionally performed nationwide work tracking immigrants who are illegally in the US but have stepped up operations since Trump took office in January.
Federal agencies are wary of body cameras
In recent years, after protests against the death of black men at the hands of police, many cities have made policy changes to increase accountability and transparency.
For example, most large police stations are Request officers to wear cameras About patrol. Many agencies release footage on request or in accordance with the state’s public record laws. Federal agencies have not embraced such changes despite some tentative steps to keep pace with their local counterparts.
In 2022, Democratic President Joe Biden issued an executive order requiring federal law enforcement agencies to adopt body camera policies for officers patrolling, arresting and searching. Trump has also announced that the directives, as well as the Drug Enforcement Bureau and US Border Patrol They have ended their use.
Lauren Bonds, executive director of the National Police Accountability Project, said: The bond said such policies protect officers from complaints from useless citizens and make it easier for the public to get justice if they are wronged. “All in the end, I think it’s an equally useful tool for police and the public,” she said.
Most local police don’t wear masks
Democrat Muriel Bowser, the mayor of Washington, wonders why many federal officers raiding the city’s streets cover their faces.
“Why do they need masks?” asked Bowser. “They are federal officials. They are paid by taxpayers. They should work in a legal and constitutional way.”
Civil rights advocates are calling for such tactics to erode trust between communities and law enforcement, making abuse more difficult for individual officers. Management officials say masks are needed to protect federal agents.
DHS Deputy Secretary Troy Edgar wrote in the OP-ED of Fox News that Mask Wearing will protect federal law enforcement officials from Doxing and Harassment. Ice has seen a sharp rise in attacks, and officials have targeted “almost every week,” he wrote.
He said that DHS agents clearly identify themselves by stating their name, displaying badges and wearing an identifier on their gear during their arrest. However, photos and videos reviewed by the Associated Press do not show agents wearing clear badges, tags or other identifiers at all times during their encounters with the public.
Musk was once largely prohibited at the federal level unless agents were infiltrating, said former assistant director of the Alcohol Bureau, tobacco firearms, and Michael Bouchard, who retired in 2007, clearly identifiable explosives.
“If you’re doing the right thing,” he said, “If you’re acting within the law, where do you have to hide from?”
Federal authorities have not provided detailed information regarding the arrest
Most local arrest reports are a matter of public records. Some local agents may even disclose such information to citizens on email groups and social media websites.
Accessing the details of basic arrests from the federal government proved to be much more difficult. The administrative authorities have made public the total of daily arrests and some of the accusations people face, but it has been difficult to find information about which agencies made which arrests and who faced what accusations.
Anyone seeking details about federal arrests is frequently instructed to file a request under the Freedom of Information Act. Most agents have a big backlog of such requests.
“When police agencies have a backlog that measures years or sometimes decades, Fola is completely ineffective in getting policing records in all kinds of useful time frames,” said Kell McClanahan, a national security counselor lawyer who frequently addresses the issue of public information.
When a loved one is arrested, families can face the tough job of trying to find them, especially by immigration authorities.
In June, for example, Rosa Soto scrambled to find out where Martingsman, a longtime family friend, was taken after he was detained by the Immigration Bureau at Home Depot in Chino, California. It took her day to track him down.
“It feels like there are no more systems you should be trusted and legitimate processes that you think are trustworthy,” Soto said. “I can’t imagine allowing people who know little about our judicial system to really navigate it.”
Federal tactics raise concerns about communities that have lost faith in police force
Civic leaders said they fear that federal repression could erode the uneven progress police have made to build trust with the communities they serve.
“We take violent people from the streets, but how much does it cost in the long run?” said Jaron Hickman, senior police commander in Washington. at the public forum on Tuesday.
Normnixon, 62, associate minister of Union Temple Baptist Church, in Washington’s historically black Anacostia district, said the federal government is changing the way residents felt about the city’s police.
“Now when these federal people come in, people just see them all as law enforcement,” Nixon said. “Some of the young people I’m talking to feel that local police officers are now traitors and that they are really against us and are out to get us.”
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Associated Press writers Jaimie Ding in Los Angeles, as well as Ashraf Khalil, Matt Brown, Leah Askarinam and Gary Fields contributed to this report.
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