By Khalida Sarwari
San Jose Police Chief Chris Moore addressed concerns at a community meeting Wednesday night from Hispanic immigrants about police-community relations following the department’s recent enlisting of federal immigration agency investigators.
More than 100 members of the immigrant community spilled out of a room at Sacred Heart Community Service to urge Moore and the Police Department to “build bridges” with the community.
Moore listened to several testimonies by those in the Latino community on negative experiences they have had with the Police Department. They said they were afraid to report crimes, even the ones where they themselves were victimized, because they mistrust the police.
Some of their concerns were that the words and actions of the Police Department are at times contradictory. They said that while police leaders have said officers are being trained to better interact with the community, at the same time families are being deported through the U.S.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Secure Communities program, which requires fingerprints of those booked into local jails to be shared with federal immigration authorities.
Many in the community fear that the department’s collaboration with the two ICE agents will increase the chances of racial profiling and deportations.
Moore called Secure Communities “bad and a danger to the community” and assured attendees Wednesday night that the agents are helping the department target escalating gang violence, which he said has contributed to more than half of the city’s homicides this year.
“If I see them operate outside of the guidelines, I will personally escort them out of the building,” Moore said, adding “I’m staking my personal reputation on this.”
He encouraged the community to take their concerns or questions relating to public safety to Kim Gaddis, one of the department’s four crime prevention specialists who stops in the Alma neighborhood biweekly as part of a pilot community-policing program called “Building Bridges.”
The program was implemented earlier this year as a partnership between Sacred Heart and the Police Department with the goal of creating a confidential space for immigrants to meet one-on-one with a Police Department representative.
“If you don’t speak to us, we can’t help you,” Moore said.
After the meeting, however, not everyone walked away convinced that relations between police and the immigrant community would improve any time soon.
“I want to give him the trust he’s asking of us,” said Celia Alvarez, a San Jose resident and community leader with Sacred Heart. “But, he says one thing and the police officers do another.