A recently circulated video of federal ICE agents pulling their unmarked vehicle into our Santa Barbara Police Department facility, where they were granted permission to store it temporarily, stands to undermine the public trust in our police department’s stated commitment to focus on local policing as opposed to supporting ICE operations. While our department has been vocal in its commitment to maintaining community trust by remaining independent of federal immigration operations, this incident involving the storage of federal evidence at the local police facility, raises questions about where exactly the line must be drawn, between the federal operation and SBPD, to ensure the public’s trust is not compromised on such matters.
According to news reports, ICE agents conducted an operation in our city without prior notification to local authorities. After apprehending an individual for allegedly vandalizing a federal vehicle, the agents drove that vehicle, on a flat tire, to our local police station. Our department subsequently granted these federal agents access to a secure, gated parking lot to store the vehicle and monitored the transfer of the person the ICE agents apprehended between federal vehicle units.
While this chain of events appears to result in a departure from SBPD’s previous stance on remaining independent of ICE operations, from a law enforcement standpoint, it also highlights a number of procedural irregularities:
Jurisdictional Responsibility: Because the alleged incident was a federal offense involving federal property, ICE agents acting as the arresting agency were operating under their own jurisdictional authority, and therefore maintain the responsibility to secure their own evidence and manage the logistics associated with their operations. I hear they have a decent budget for this.
Integrity of the Scene: Standard forensic protocol dictates that a vehicle involved in an incident or potential alleged crime should be secured in place to preserve the chain of custody and physical evidence. By ICE agents driving the vehicle on a flat tire to a local police station, the evidence was effectively compromised likely before a thorough investigation could be conducted. Best practices suggest the ICE agents should have cordoned off the area with tape and later utilized federal or a fed-contracted towing service to a federal facility.
Resource Allocation as “Support”: By providing a secure, taxpayer-funded facility to store federal evidence, our local department provided a level of logistical support that contradicts its public stance of non-collusion. While admittedly a delicate situation, the privilege afforded to the ICE agents with respect to providing a facility for securing their own vehicle, went beyond “maintaining the peace” and protecting our local citizenry. It was a logistical favor that entangled local resources in a federal operation. As the kids would say, the police were “DTM,” you know, just clearly “doing too much” as it were.
The community’s outrage, also witnessed on video captured at the scene, is not merely emotional; it is based on a desire for the transparency and independence our leaders promised. When local police facilitate the logistics of federal agencies that have bypassed local notification protocols, it creates a “de facto” partnership that erodes the very trust the department seeks to build.
I am not writing from the perspective of a critic of the police in general — my brother is a retired officer — nor of our police department specifically, quite the opposite in fact. Chief Gordon and the whole department have much to be proud of in our city, and I feel fortunate to have her at the helm along with all of the brave officers who endeavor to keep the peace in our community and be there when we need them most. This is about a specific incident, and perhaps the growing nuances between federal and local law enforcement jurisdictional and moral authority that require agencies to navigate these waters with the utmost care and diligence in order to protect the public — and the public trust.
I appreciate our police department’s stated intention to focus solely on local safety and the protection of all residents, but what was witnessed on video, widely shared and reported on, is a scene in which our local officers appear to have been conscripted into facilitating activities related to an ICE operation involving a federal vehicle and an alleged federal incident. The SBPD officers in the field, which in this case meant right out in front of the police department, conducted themselves with remarkable composure in the face of extremely vocal critics hurling insults and offensive language at them. However, they might have been spared enduring this barrage entirely if they hadn’t involved themselves in ICE’s “flat-tire-gate” matter to begin with. True, ICE came to them … literally, out front. But, when they came, the officers did not turn them back; instead they opened the doors for them, well, the gate anyway.
I believe our own SBPD has the best of intentions; however, for those intentions to remain credible, the department must maintain strict boundaries. In the future, I urge the department to direct federal agencies to manage their own logistical needs and evidence storage. Restoring community trust requires an unwavering commitment to our own community first, and with that, an adherence to the policy of non-interference, ensuring that local resources are never used as a convenience for federal operations.
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