Washington, D.C. 703.268.

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CRIMINAL JUSTICE INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATES

7/13/2010

008-2010

ARIZONA IMMIGRATION LAW REQUIRES EXCEPTIONAL POLICE

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LEADERSHIP

www.cjiausa.org
By: Jerry Brewer

There are many fine law enforcement administrators and genuine leaders throughout
the United States who are consistently proficient in their leadership abilities, and
generally operate within their resource allocations. These strategic and proactive
managers produce and maintain healthy organizations and consistently maintain a high

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achievement environment.

jbrewer@cjiausa.org
That form of leadership allows excellent creative maneuvering in lieu of systems that
are static and await plans to drip down from the top of a hierarchical bureaucratic
maze. Unfortunately, there are those that are devoid of real answers and have
discarded their objectivity and are philosophically bankrupt on issues that require
proactive policing strategies to meet the challenges of threat to a homeland in modern
day times. There are many that are intent on holding onto procedures and beliefs that
are now becoming noticeably discredited.

The fact is that the majority of state and local law enforcement agencies throughout
the U.S. are operating within tight financial constraints and operating within a “cut-
back” financial environment. They are essentially told to do more with much less.
Those police managers that raise the “excuse” card and become proponents of a vocal
position of “it just can’t be done,” generally find that their services might be better
served elsewhere.

Today’s police management requires that those leaders be innovative, flexible,

creative, and balance deficiencies with the strength of their allocated human resources
that are in place. This “can do” leadership graphically reflects on the true
management principal that is not always how many officers you have, but what those
allocated officers actually do that really matters. There are many flexible options that
allow for significant adjustments that will make a great difference.

The redirecting and regrouping of similar functions that usually overlap and are
redundant, as well as allocating more of those support personnel to operational acts
make major differences in efficiency. Overlapping and power work schedules are
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strategic tools in having officers available during peak service periods. This determined by appropriate
workload and previous response studies. People need to be deployed and available to meet the actual
workload and service requirements that are inherent in the respective jurisdictions.

Arizona’s new immigration law is one that describes a significant threat to the U.S. homeland, although
not just specifically to the usual illegal immigrant. It is also based on the violence, death, and associated
carnage and lawlessness that is ravaging the Mexican nation and spilling over on the U.S. homeland.
Depending on which opinion side of the Arizona law one sits on, the term “spillover” is carefully
rationalized. The superior armament, advanced weaponry, and paramilitary-styled tactics utilized by
this enemy began back as far as 2005.

Many proactive U.S. border police administrators were quick to take note of these transnational
organized criminals regularly crossing the border escorting drug loads, guarded by paramilitary dress
and armed insurgents. Their complaints to federal authorities were not necessarily ignored but did take
a back seat to the problems of the Border Patrol agents being routinely fired upon over in the Tucson-
Nogales, Arizona sector of the Mexican border region.

Since October 1, 2004, 196 assaults on U.S. agents, including 24 shootings, had been recorded. As well,
reportedly US$50,000 bounties were placed on Border Patrol agents, as well as state and local police
officers. This was over five years ago. The disturbing reality in all of this was the fact that President
George W. Bush recognized through intelligence sources briefs of this new enemy and the significant
threat it would pose to U.S. soil.
President Bush astutely observed that many U.S. state lawmakers were taking credit for getting large
amounts of counterterrorism money for their districts, without a coherent and conceptual framework of
understanding by those that would be required to engage, contain, and neutralize the threat by these non-
military combatants and their sophisticated paramilitary tactics and superior arms. This was essentially
a blank check for more government waste. Bush proposed the eliminating of around seven government
policing grants in exchange for more money to be allocated for anti-terrorism policing for our homeland
security.
There were many policing officials nationwide that were quick to criticize this move from community-
oriented styles of policing and other similar programs and philosophies, claiming “we need more money
for traditional styles of policing” and not terrorism related issues. This was a major failure by many to
simply ignore what was going on south of the border in a naïve belief that the magic line in the sand or a
wall/fence would stop it. Meanwhile over this five year or so time frame, this enemy moved into over
230 major U.S. cities setting up elaborate drug distribution routes and territories to fill an annual U.S.
$30 billion drug demand.
President Bush’s anti-terrorism grants/money was designed to prepare state and local law enforcement,
prevent and deter, and allow for the appropriate response/interdiction to this new and real threat to the
U.S. homeland. Instead, the popular consensus was to “just build the walls/fences.”
It is sad to hear some U.S. police leaders within the Mexican border region that possess many years of
border policing tenure that are against the proposed Arizona immigration law. They cite neutral alarm
of offending foreign nationals, or the fear of having illegal aliens who are victims of crime on our soil to
fear police response for fear of being deported, or losing them as informants or information contributors.
Too, they feel that these duties will overwhelm police and take them from the important “traditional
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crime fighting” duties and overwhelm their budgets or resources. They say it will prevent or reduce
proactive patrolling and tie up their personnel.
These excuses by some leaders fail to be a part of the solution and to properly assess their organization’s
readiness to cope with the rapidly changing cultural and technological environment of transnational
crime and violence. Contemporary philosophical and programmatic innovations are necessary in lieu of
passing the buck and leaving the burden of this virtual impending increased violent insurgency to an
overworked, understaffed, and under resourced federal law enforcement cadre. It is and must be a total
team law enforcement effort.
Police administrators must step up and evaluate how efficiently their jurisdictions are organized to
conduct operations, evaluate how productively their human resources can adapt and be deployed
strategically, identify training needs, policies and procedures that comply with professional police
standards, and conform to the expectations of the public to which they serve, as well as those of their
governing bodies.

CRIMINAL JUSTICE INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATES

United States of America

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Jerry Brewer is C.E.O. of Criminal Justice International Associates, a global threat mitigation firm located in
Northern Virginia. Website is located at www.cjiausa.org. jbrewer@cjiausa.org