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Does Suffolk Police Dept. have a written policy on immigration confidentiality?

Posted December 14, 2008 by Patrick Young, Esq.

The Suffolk Police have recently said that there will be no inquiries into the immigration status of the victim’s of crimes. Which sounds good, right? But there are a lot of doubts as to whether that “policy” has always been in effect, or whether it just recently came into being following the media focus on the department’s poor relations with Latinos.
Since the political rhetoric in county government branded undocumented immigrants as engaged in some sort of continuing crime, it is understandable that many undoumented people felt they were outlaws in the eyes of the police.
Also there are concerns that victim’s of crimes may have their immigration status challenged under certain circumstances. For example, had the police come upon the Lucero attack prior to its fatal conclusion, one could imagine the following street scene:
Marcelo Lucero tells the police officers in halting English that he does not know these kids, but that they mysteriously singled him out for attack. Meanwhile, seven upstanding young men with perfect English say that Lucero had stolen money from them and that they were just trying to get it back. The police don’t know who to beleive, they arrest the bunch of them, and turn Lucero over to ICE.
So before I go assuring the immigrant community that there will be no inquiries into immigration status, I thought it would be good to read the Suffolk PD’s procedures on police/ICE cooperation. Here is my e-mail inquiry and I have reprinted the pertinent part of the Department’s response:

Dear Commissioner Dormer,
I have recently read that the Suffolk Police will not inquire into
immigrants legal status when they report a crime. I am very interested
to know what the department’s policy regarding police/ICE cooperation
is. Could you send me a copy of the policy with the date(s) it was
adopted and promulgated. We will distribute this information in the
Latino community.
You can e-mail it to me or send it to me at my office.
Thank You.
Patrick Young, Esq.
CARECEN
2000 Brentwood Rd. 2nd Floor
Brentwood, N.Y. 11717

We will not release excerpts from our Rules and Procedures. However, you are correct - we will NOT inquire about immigration status when a person is a victim of a crime. Simply stated, we are here to help people. It is irrelevant where a person who has been victimized was born. [The response then gives me Dormer’s snail-mail address if I have further inquiries].
[signed by]
Deputy Inspector McKenna
Suffolk County Police Department

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