It’s often said that when someone knowledgeable speaks out, we should listen.
In just the past week the police federation leaders representing more than a 1,000 police officers from Minneapolis and St. Paul have spoken out in opposition to the political influence over police tactics that have harmed true public safety.
Both statements focused on the local police response to organized opposition against federal agents and the immigration enforcement being carried out as part of Operation Metro Surge (OMS).
Last week, St. Paul Police Federation President Mark Ross spoke out to the NY Post, critical of state and local political interference that has blocked local law enforcement leaders from providing timely, tactical assistance to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents in the form of crowd control. Propper local involvement, Ross argued, would have likely prevented the fatal shooting of Renee Good and Alex Pretti, as ICE agents were put in unnecessary force protection roles instead of focusing on arresting the targets of their operations.
According to Ross, Minnesota’s local officers are trained and equipped to provide crowd control and force protection. He correctly noted that such a service to ICE would not have put local officers in the role of enforcing immigration law but would have put them in the role of providing true public safety.
Then, this week Minneapolis Police Federation President Sherral Schmidt issued a statement critical of activists being allowed to erect road blockades in the city of Minneapolis to impede ICE activity. Schmidt criticized the anemic response from the city, saying the response has put Minneapolis rank and file police officers in an “impossible position.”
Schmidt implored city leaders to “take an assertive and aggressive stance on stopping the illegal blockades and enforce laws before someone gets seriously hurt.”
The failure of leadership from many state and local law enforcement leaders and ICE leaders to come to an earlier agreement on how to effectively work together during OMS, must be part of a necessary after action review. Politics should never again interfere with or supersede proper law enforcement tactics.
Fortunately, since Border Czar Tom Homan’s arrival in town last week, better inter-agency and intra-agency coordination has occurred, allowing ICE agents to focus more on targeted enforcement and less on force protection. Homan stated just this morning that ICE is now receiving “unprecedented cooperation” from most Minnesota counties in terms of turning over their public safety threats who are in local custody.
This cooperation in the jails and on the street has led to the decision to draw down the compliment of federal agents in Minnesota by 700, immediately. Homan stressed that this was “smarter law enforcement, not less law enforcement,” and that there would be no draw down in the mission of OMS.
