Across the country today, local police find themselves at a dangerous crossroads. On one side stands their sworn duty—to uphold the Constitution, protect the rights of all people, and preserve the trust of the communities they serve. On the other side, increasing pressure from federal immigration enforcement agencies to cooperate in sweeping roundups and detentions of undocumented residents.
Let me be clear: I am not talking about removing violent offenders—murderers, rapists, or drug dealers. Those who commit serious crimes should be arrested, prosecuted, and, if appropriate, deported after due process. That is justice.
But that is not what these sweeps are about. Today, millions of our neighbors—an estimated eleven million people—live among us who came here seeking a better life and the chance to become Americans. They work, pay taxes, raise families, and struggle through our byzantine immigration system in hopes of legal status. To treat them as criminals simply because of their status is neither fair nor American.
The Threat to Police Legitimacy
When local police choose to act as an arm of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), they put at risk the very foundation of effective, community-oriented policing: trust. People cooperate with police only when they believe officers serve and protect them without bias. Once that trust is broken, people stop reporting crimes, even when they have been harmed, they stop serving as witnesses, and retreat into the shadows. The result is more crime, less safety, and police stripped of both their legitimacy and effectiveness.
History shows this clearly. In Madison, Wisconsin, during my years as chief, our focus on community-oriented policing built trust across neighborhoods. People knew our officers respected them and would not betray them. That trust was essential to keeping the city safe. By contrast, cities that have entangled their police with immigration enforcement often find immigrant communities withdrawing from public life, leaving crimes unreported and neighborhoods more vulnerable.
What Local Police Must Do
To preserve their integrity, reputation, and effectiveness, police leaders today must draw clear boundaries. Here is what I urge:
- Do not cooperate. Assist only when judicial warrants exist for dangerous persons.
- Verify the legality of ICE warrants—administrative warrants are not sufficient. Prevent illegal entries into private spaces without judicial warrants.
- Protect undocumented residents from excessive force during arrests and detentions.
- Document and report all ICE activity with video and written reports, including the names of agents and those detained.
- Strengthen ties with community leaders to establish and maintain alert networks when ICE comes to town.
This is not about shielding criminals. It is about defending the rights of all people, as guaranteed by our Constitution, and about ensuring that policing in America remains legitimate and trusted.
The Police Code of Ethics
Every police officer in this country swore an oath—not to a mayor, not to a governor, not to a president, and certainly not to ICE—but to the Constitution. The International Association of Chiefs of Police Code of Ethics makes this obligation clear: we are to “safeguard lives and property, protect the innocent against deception, the weak against oppression, and the peaceful against violence or disorder.” That mandate does not end at citizenship status.
A Time for Courage
This will be controversial. Doing the right thing always has been. Throughout my career, I faced pushback from those who believed policing was only about force and compliance. But I was relentless in showing them a better way: policing rooted in service, restraint, and respect for the dignity of every person — no exceptions.
Today, the stakes are again high. If local police abandon their duty and cooperate in unjust immigration enforcement, they risk losing the very thing that makes them effective—community trust.
A free and diverse society needs police who embody our national values on the street every day. That is the path to safety, to legitimacy, and to true justice. Anything less dishonors the badge. It’s time for all of us to resist and step up.
Improving Police: A Necessary Conversation 
You have gone off the rails on this on David. By encouraging local police to not cooperate with federal authority you are undermining police legitimacy. This will cause harm to those who take your advice here and encourage civil unrest. There will never be justice without order (peace), its not possible.
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You have your opinion on this and I have mine. I base mine on life experience informed by moral theology. Cops cannot stand around and let other cops act improperly or illegally. Period! Whom do you then serve?
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That’s a great question…Whom are the chiefs in Portland, Seattle, Minneapolis and Chicago, to name just a few, actually serving? Certainly not the citizens who live in fear, lose sleep to the nightly protests (riots), and barricade themselves in their homes. To NOT respond to calls for help is an abdication of their oath, as it is to not cooperate with federal authorities. As a policing professional, you do not chose the laws and policies you are sworn to uphold. If you can not bring yourself to do the job when the job gets tough, have the courage and virtue to resign, like a few of our military leaders are now doing.
At the local level, they clearly fear their simple minded elected officials who cower before the mob. That’s no way to live and it’s no way to police a community. Cops can never be moral actors.
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Fine, then don’t complain about left wing policing during the Cold War and even today in Communist countries like China and Vietam; however, they don’t allow cops to have unions or possess private firearms. At least, they kept order (peace).
Also don’t complain when the police arrest you without a valid warrant or come into your home without a valid warrant.
You want peace? Give people good paying jobs with strict restraints on white collar, corporate crime and send the CEOs and their flunkies to prison with no chance of parole and give them heavy prison time and/or the death penalty.
You want to solve the problem of immigration? Go after the employers who hired illegal immigrants and stop the employers from hiring H1B visa foreign workers and make them invest in the American workers and the further American workers aka American kids.
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