Sewickley officials have approved a police policy limiting interactions with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Council unanimously passed its resolution on April 14.
The resolution was meant to reaffirm the borough’s “commitment to community trust, public safety and the proper scope of local law enforcement authority with respect to federal immigration laws,” according to the meeting agenda.
The resolution was modeled after a template sent out by the Allegheny County District Attorney’s Office in partnership with the Allegheny County Chiefs of Police Association.
Sewickley officials said their final version was crafted by borough Solicitor Nate Boring with input from Police Chief Dave Mazza, Sgt. Bill Hanlon and Sgt. David Yurkovac as well as council members Todd Hamer, Bridgett Bates, Kristopher Lorang and Tom Rostek.
Yurkovac and Hanlon are the police department’s collective bargaining unit representatives.
The borough also looked at model resolutions from other Allegheny County communities.
“We worked very close with our solicitor and our police and a lot of people within the borough to make sure we got a good resolution together,” Hamer said. “I think most people in our borough as well as surrounding boroughs respect what our police do, and we don’t need to make wholesale changes. It shouldn’t impact their day-to-day operations.”
What’s in the resolution
The resolution states borough police do not stop, detain, arrest, or investigate individuals solely for suspected civil violations of federal immigration law, and that this practice “reflects the proper scope of local law enforcement authority and long-standing department operations.”
The resolution prohibits the borough from entering into a 287(g) cooperation agreement.
The 287(g) Program, according to ice.gov, allows a law enforcement agency to enforce certain aspects of U.S. immigration law, expanding a department’s authority to identify and process removable aliens with pending or active criminal charges, enforce limited immigration authorities with ICE oversight during routine duties, and serve and execute administrative warrants on removable aliens in a department’s jail.
The resolution states police will cooperate with federal authorities in criminal matters or emergency situations.
However, it also states, in part, that the borough “shall not enter into any memorandum of understanding or similar agreement that commits borough personnel, time, funds, or resources toward the non-criminal administrative enforcement of federal immigration laws.”
The resolution is available for review at the borough office, 601 Thorn St.
Sewickley Police Department has 12 full-time officers and eight part-timers. They patrol the borough as well as Glen Osborne.
Chief Mazza said the policy does not change how the department currently operates.
“It doesn’t change a thing for us,” he said after the meeting. “It just provided clarity. The process (to create the policy) was a very good process.
“It keeps our officers safe and they have a guide to go to now.”
Mazza said there may be incidents in which borough police would respond to ICE activity in order to keep agents and the general public safe.
“If ICE is doing an operation and protesters show up and there’s a scene, we will provide traffic control (and) we will provide crowd control,” Mazza said. “That is how local police have to do their job to protect the community that they serve.”
Public support
More than 100 people attended February’s workshop meeting imploring the borough to enact such a policy.
A few, including residents Kayleigh Waters and Sewickley United Methodist Church pastor the Rev. Hannah Loughman, were at the April voting session to thank council for approving it.
Waters said she was hoping the resolution would be more restrictive with information sharing and assurances the borough would not track residents immigration status.
“I think it’s a great start,” Waters said after the vote. “I think it does reaffirm Sewickley’s values. I think they could be doing more to really be fully living into those values, but I appreciate their willingness to take up the issue and do something. Doing something is better than nothing.”
Borough officials said they do not have any resident immigration database and do not plan on creating one.
Council President Cynthia Mullins hopes the resolution shows that they took everyone’s concerns into account.
“We knew there was a tremendous amount of interest from this community,” Mullins said. “What was just outstanding to me was the outpouring of love and respect for our professional police force. I think the police force wants to maintain that trust that the public seems to have in them.”
Leet commissioners passed a similar resolution limiting police interactions with ICE on April 13.