Growing criticism of ICE is leading to scrutiny of the LAPD’s relationship with the feds

After the recent shooting of US citizens Renee Good and Alex Pretti by federal agents in Minneapolis, other police officials have joined the growing criticism of the Trump administration’s blitz.

One voice lost in the fray: LAPD Chief Jim McDonnell.

This week, the chief reiterated that the department has a close relationship with law enforcement, and said it will not instruct its officials to use the new state law – currently being challenged as unconstitutional – that prohibits the use of face coverings by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement and other government agencies.

Top police officers across the country rarely criticize their federal partners, relying on cooperation to investigate gangs, extremist groups and other serious criminals — while counting millions in funding from Washington each year.

McDonnell and the LAPD have found themselves in a very difficult position, say longtime watchers of the department. The city has been hit by immigration raids and protests, and local leaders, including Mayor Karen Bass, have bombed the White House. But with the World Cup and the Olympics coming up soon – events that will require cooperation with the agencies – the chief was choosing his words carefully.

Over the past year, McDonnell has backtracked on the message that the LAPD has a longstanding policy of not engaging in immigration enforcement. Unlike his counterparts in Minneapolis, Portland and Philadelphia, he has largely avoided public comment on the tactics used by federal agents, reserving his harsh criticism of protesters accused of vandalism or violence.

In a radio interview last spring, the chief said that “it’s important that in such a large city, a major terrorist-targeted city like Los Angeles, that we have a very close relationship with our federal, state and local partners.” He boasted that the LAPD “has the best relationship in the nation for that.”

McDonnell stood by FBI Director Kash Patel at the airport last week to announce the arrest of a Canadian former Olympic snowboarder accused of smuggling tons of cocaine into Los Angeles. Then, at a press conference Thursday where city officials announced the low number of homicides, McDonnell said LAPD officials were “disturbed” like everyone else by events in other parts of the country, referring to Pretti’s shooting without naming him. He said the Department will continue to work with government agencies on non-immigration matters.

Explaining his stance on not enforcing the mask ban, McDonnell said he wouldn’t risk asking his officers to go to “another armed organization that’s causing some conflict” like a misdemeanor.

“It is not a good policy decision and it was not well thought out in my opinion,” he said.

Elsewhere, law enforcement leaders, civil rights advocates and other legal experts have criticized how ICE agents and other federal officials have flouted best practices when making arrests, controlling crowds and maintaining public safety amid mass protests.

After the deputy-involved shooting of two wanted men in Portland, Ore., in mid-January, the city’s police chief gave a tearful news conference saying he wanted to understand Latino residents “with your voices, your concerns, your fears, your anger.”

Philadelphia Sheriff Rochelle Bilal started a firestorm on social media after calling ICE agents “law enforcement, fake, law enforcement.”

In Minneapolis, where the Trump administration has deployed 3,000 federal agents, Police Chief Brian O’Hara reportedly warned his officers privately that they would lose their jobs if they failed to intervene when federal agents used force. And at a news conference this week, the New Orleans police superintendent questioned ICE’s arrest of one of the agency’s employees.

Second-guessing has also spread in small towns like Helena, Mont., where the city’s police chief has removed its officers from a drug task force because of its decision to cooperate with US Border Patrol agents.

Over the weekend, the International Assn. of Chiefs of Police, the largest and most powerful group of police officers in the country, has asked the White House to convene local, state and federal law enforcement partners to “discuss the level of policy aimed at identifying a constructive way forward.”

McDonnell’s supporters argue that the chief’s role is anti-political, even though many of his predecessors have been national voices shaping public safety policy. Speaking out, King’s supporters say, it risks bringing a backlash from the White House and could affect a long pipeline of federal funds the department relies on, for example, to help fund attrition training for officials.

Assemblyman Mark González (D-Los Angeles) was among those who objected to McDonnell’s willingness to work with ICE while serving as Los Angeles County sheriff, but said he now considers him a “great ally” who supported the latest anti-crime law.

So he said he was disappointed by McDonnell’s reluctance to call out racial profiling and greater power by federal agents in Minneapolis and elsewhere.

“We have to rely on a king who can say that ICE arresting and detaining 5-year-old children and arresting flower sellers is not what this program was designed for,” said González, the House majority whip. “It would help if there were law enforcement officers who supported the community they serve.”

Within the LAPD, senior officials supported McDonnell’s moderation, suggesting that promises by officials in other cities to arrest ICE agents have come to nothing.

“Have you seen them tie the knot? No,” said Deputy Chief Alan Hamilton.

LAPD officers work in about three teams that work with federal officials, where they share information and resources to track down criminals, said Hamilton, the department’s chief of detectives. Cooperation with state partners is essential in operations that include fighting “human trafficking in Figueroa” and dismantling international theft rings, he said. As part of the investigation, the two sides are sharing intelligence — programs that some privacy rights groups warn are now being exploited in the government’s immigration crackdown.

Hamilton said “nothing is happening right now that will disrupt our relationship with the federal government throughout this.”

Art Acevedo, a former chief in Houston and Miami, said for any major city chief, taking an official position on an issue as divisive as immigration can be difficult.

Being seen as coming out against President Trump comes with “certain political risks,” she said.

But mayors in immigrant-rich cities like Houston and LA must weigh the irreparable damage to public trust by failing to denounce the latest attacks, he said.

“If you don’t speak, the old saying that silence closes is true, you end up losing the community and you end up putting your people in danger,” he said. “The truth is that when you are a police chief you have a bully pulpit, and what you say or fail to say is important.”

Those with knowledge on the organization’s side of the issue say it cuts both ways.

John Sandweg, former ICE director under President Obama, said federal authorities need local police and the community to provide information and support services, but the immigration agency’s “zero tolerance” approach puts such cooperation “at risk.”

“Ideally, in a perfect world, ICE would be able to work in immigrant communities to target really bad actors,” he said. “But if you have zero tolerance, when the number of arrests is more important than the quality of arrests, you remove any ability to cooperate.”

Times staff writers Brittny Mejia, Ruben Vives and The Associated Press contributed to this report.