Apparently, symbolism instead of public safety is going to be the guiding principle for the City of Los Angeles and the Los Angeles Police Department.
In an attempt to pressure the state of Arizona, the City of Los Angeles voted to boycott business with Arizona when it passed Senate Bill 1070 (SB 1070), which addresses illegal immigrants. Several months prior to this City Council action, the Los Angeles Police Department registered four Air Support Division officers to attend the annual Airborne Law Enforcement Association Conference, held at a different location every year. This year’s conference, hosted by the United States Border Patrol in July, will be held in Tucson, Arizona. This conference allows interaction with many other police agencies within airborne operations and is a forum to share valuable information that leads to safety and efficiency improvements among the participating agencies.
The City’s boycott, which banned official travel to Arizona unless “special circumstances exist,” led City Councilmembers Greig Smith and Bernard Parks to introduce a motion with the first request for an exemption to the policy. If passed, the motion would allow the four officers to attend this highly regarded conference, where they would exchange best practices with fellow law enforcement air support personnel from around the country. This week, the council took up the issue and then delayed making a decision by suggesting that private donors pay for the trip. Before the issue could be decided and donors secured, the LAPD suddenly decided to cancel the officers’ training, despite prior approval and long history of attendance.
Apparently, the LAPD command staff decided that it should spare the City Council the embarrassment of voting on this issue. By placing political correctness above public safety, the Department did itself no favors. Clearly the training, considered to be one of the premier trainings for air support policing, was important enough for the Department to approve sending them in the first place – despite the budgetary constraints and long before the City Council enacted its boycott.
While we have not taken a political position on SB 1070, we are supportive of an honest public debate on the Arizona law by elected officials. The decision to boycott Arizona was a political one by the City Council. The LAPD did their officers and the residents of Los Angeles a great disservice by jumping into the political arena to try to spare councilmembers from addressing a consequence of their prior vote.
