♪♪
-They call us Dreamers,
but to be honest, for us can be an actual nightmare.
-Victor Manuel Arzate was only four
when his family brought him across the border into the U.S.
without documentation.
-[ Singing in Spanish ]
-He's here legally for now,
but like 16,000 other so-called Dreamers in the state,
he's worried his status could soon be in jeopardy.
-First day in office,
we're going to close up the border.
-Are they scared?
-Yes, yes. There's always that fear.
-Lawmakers are trying to turn that fear into hope
with a new Washington state measure allowing
Dreamers to become police officers.
-This has just given them an opportunity
to be employed in a field that needs more people
that represent the communities that they're in.
-Transport.
-And with five new regional training academies,
finding local recruits, including Dreamers,
could help in the struggle to hire more officers.
-91, dispatch.
-We're able to get
people in much quicker and get that wait list down.
-How well is the new law working to improve
police recruitment in Washington?
-I want the DACA recipients to know there's a space for you.
-Our panel of experts weighs in.
-We are last in the nation in staffing per capita
for law enforcement.
-Trust the process and trust the fact
that we are doing everything we can.
-Balancing police hiring efforts and immigration policy.
Next on "City Inside/Out."
♪♪
Welcome to "City Inside/Out."
I'm your host, Brian Callanan.
A new state program meant to help hire
more law enforcement officers and create
more diverse police departments faces an uncertain future.
This April, State Senate Bill 6157 cleared the way
for DACA recipients, undocumented immigrants
who came to the U.S. as children to become police officers
or other civil service workers.
But with looming threats of mass deportations
and a wave of anti-immigrant rhetoric,
the effort to help so-called Dreamers become cops
is still just a dream.
-[ Singing in Spanish ]
The song is a traditional Mexican classic,
a story of a man with money or without,
who follows his own law and considers himself a king.
But behind the swagger tn this music,
there is fear for Victor Manuel Arzate.
He's a so-called Dreamer whose family brought him to the U.S.
as a child, undocumented, about 20 years ago.
-They call us Dreamers,
but to be honest, for us, can be an actual nightmare.
-Arzate is one of more than 16,000 immigrants
in Washington state with
Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals status, or DACA.
The 2012 law shields recipients from deportation
if they apply for work permits every two years
and avoid felonies or significant misdemeanors.
But that shield is under assault.
-On day one of my new administration,
we will begin the largest deportation operation
in American history.
We have no choice.
-President-elect Trump attempted to end DACA
in his first term but was stopped in the courts.
Trump's recent statements indicate he may try
to protect Dreamers,
but Arzate, who's dreamed about serving in the Tri-Cities
as a police officer
since he was a kid sees an uncertain path ahead.
-I'm scared that once he gets in office,
that he'll put a lot of, you know, barriers in our future.
-That future looked clearer back in April
when Washington state passed a law allowing Dreamers
like Arzate to apply for police officer jobs
or other civil service positions.
-Pasco police. -The new law is part
of a statewide effort to fight back against officer shortages.
-I've got a resistive male.
-To that end, the Criminal Justice
Training Commission has built
regional academies across the state.
-We want a diverse police force.
We realize that's the best way to serve a community.
-Dave Miller is director of training for the CJTC.
-Is this fine for taking him into custody,
having your partner grab the other arm?
-He says before academies like this one in Pasco,
the CJTC was locked in to sending recruits
to its Burien location for training,
creating a year-plus backlog
for police departments desperately trying
to hire officers.
But now... -We're getting people that would
never, ever be able to become police officers before.
Miller says the wait list is gone and a new,
diverse generation of recruits is showing up,
a major boost for a profession that needs not only
new officers,
but a new connection to the people
it's trying to protect and serve.
-Some community members lost some trust in law enforcement
in the last few years, so we're trying to build that trust back.
And what better way of having the community go out
and serve the community?
-There's a sense of trust
when you're coming to report a crime to someone
that looks like you and speaks your language.
-Blanche Barajas is the Pasco City Council member
who saw the need and built the coalition
to pass Washington's Law on DACA hiring,
a law for other states also carry
amidst a raging debate over immigration across the U.S...
-It's not that we're bringing in people out of other countries
to give them a badge and a gun.
We're giving opportunity of employment to people
that have grown up in this country.
-Thus far, no Dreamers have completed the process
to become an officer in Washington state.
Barajas says that's due to a lack of outreach
and heightened anxiety from Dreamers about their status
in a new presidential administration.
-It's understandable,
but we just need to keep supporting the youth
that really want to do this.
It's the young people in our community
that are going to decide our future.
-Young people like Arzate, a dreamer with a wake-up
call for anyone concerned about public safety
and immigration reform.
It turns out the kid who always wanted to be a cop
is singing from the same page you are.
-Because at the end of the day,
we're just trying to protect our home.
That's about it.
♪♪
-And welcome back to "City Inside/Out."
I'm Brian Callanan, very glad you're with us.
And joining us to discuss this very complex topic
a little bit further, we have with us
State Senator John Lovick, the Democrat from Mill Creek
in the 44th Legislative District,
a former state trooper, too.
Thanks very much for being here, Senator.
-Glad to be here, Brian. Thanks for inviting me.
-You bet.
Also have with us Monica Alexander.
She is executive director of the Washington State
Criminal Justice Training Commission, CJTC.
Monica, good to see you, too.
-Thank you. You also.
-And also with us, Steve Strachan is here,
former King County Sheriff, now the executive director
of the Washington Association of Sheriffs and Police Chief --
police chiefs, I should say. Steve, great to see you again.
-Good to be here.
And I'd be remiss if I didn't mention that also,
former sheriff of Snohomish County.
-That's a good point. That's a very good point.
We got to make sure we get the badges out here.
Alright.
Well, before we get into some of the background
of this topic here, I want to get some of the backstory.
And Senator Lovick, you sponsored Senate Bill 6157
to allow Dreamers,
DACA recipients, to become police officers.
Why? Why'd you do that?
-So first of all, thanks for having us today.
And, you know, we look around the law enforcement profession
and we realize and recognize
that we probably need to change the culture of the profession.
And to change that culture,
we have to bring people in who will better represent,
more represent the communities that they serve in.
And I was thinking about this,
and actually I have to give Steve a little credit
and Director Alexander a little credit.
They actually came -- he came to me,
the Washington Association Sheriffs and Police Chiefs,
they were thinking about the same thing.
And when we all get together with these ideas in Olympia,
that was what we ended up doing.
And it was a smooth piece of legislation
that we were able to get through.
And we, I believe strongly
that we're going to bring people into the profession
that have traditionally not had the opportunity to serve before.
-Okay, and we're going to dive into that issue
a little further.
Thank you very much for that, Senator.
Monica, I'm thinking about the CJTC.
It's opened several regional academies around the state
as a way to reach out to possible new recruits,
including Dreamers.
Can you talk about the importance of hiring officers
from different communities to work in those communities,
because this whole idea of hiring a diverse group
of officers, many of whom might speak
a language in addition to English,
I know it's an important -- important part of your work now
and has been for many years.
-Yes, and we are so excited to have the regional academies
because exactly what you said,
they're training in the place where they're going to police.
They're living, training
and working in the same community,
so they're going to know the community.
And when you know your community,
I think crime will start going down
because people will trust the police more.
And you mentioned this,
this really important, speaking more than one language.
Speaking English and, right?
And so you're communicating well with the community
that you're serving.
And that also goes to what Senator Lovick said
and changing the culture.
We're seeing single mothers,
dads that said they wouldn't have joined law enforcement
until their children are in school and they have newborns.
But because they can stay at home and go to training
and treat it like a job,
we're seeing some really great results from this.
-Yeah, rather than going 19 weeks over
to Burian, Normandy Park.
-It's beautiful, but... -Yeah, right.
There's other places to do this.
Steve, I wanted to talk about this plan
to increase the officer hiring pool with Dreamers.
It's not just a matter of, boy, that'd be really nice to have.
It just feels like something our state really, really needs.
I wanted to focus on the police hiring shortage.
You've been talking about this a lot.
It's in our state and around the country.
How can a program like this maybe help with that?
-Well, and I've said it a lot,
but we are last in the nation in staffing per capita
for law enforcement.
And our associations talked a lot about it.
And of course, the great question is,
what do we do about it?
How do we move forward?
The senator, the director have been part of that as well.
And a huge part of that is not only
creating the systems to hire more people
and to just start to solve that problem,
but to remove the impediments,
to remove the hurdles from people
who may want to become police officers
and to increase recruiting to make it more accessible,
as the director said.
And she was talking about that.
It really occurred to me,
and I've talked to the Senator about this, too.
It really -- it creates a huge hurdle,
even for the training portion,
as you mentioned, to move to Burien.
If you're a single mom in the Tri-Cities or a dad in Spokane,
and to open that up not only increases capacity for training,
but it enables a whole new layer of people,
the people that we need the most who are really reflective
of those communities.
And it goes back to -- you both heard this a million times.
Robert Peel, you know, the father of law enforcement,
the police are the community, the community are the police.
-Right.
-And this is absolutely a perfect reflection of that.
-Thank you.
And I want to work on some of the different challenges
that are going on with this program.
And, Senator Lovick, maybe I can start with you.
I talked with Council member Blanche Barajas in Pasco,
who lobbied for Senate Bill 6157,
and she told me that no local Dreamers
have taken advantage of this program
as of yet, even though it's been a state law for several months.
One Dreamer told me he's very scared.
He's hearing about mass deportations
in a new Trump administration.
He's very afraid. I should point out
that President-elect has said in the media
he's open to this idea of helping Dreamers,
but it's just unclear what's next.
What do you say to Dreamers
who are afraid about signing up to be a police officer?
-So what I would tell them -- and that's a great question.
I would tell them to just trust the process,
trust the process and trust the fact
that we are doing everything we can,
and then none of us
can predict what the President-elect is going to do
or is going to say.
But what we always -- what we all need to know
is that we have people in place.
We have a governor,
we have a new attorney general
that will be kind of that backstop for those things.
And I would just tell those Dreamers
to really trust the process,
and we're going to do everything we can to apply, uh,
with asking them to apply to step up to the plate
and let them know that we're going to do what we can
to get them into the process, into the system.
-Thank you.
And, Monica, is there anything the CJTC can do to help
Dreamers feel more comfortable
with this process of becoming a cop?
-I think, you know,
taking the training to their community could be helpful.
Not having to leave your family and your support base.
Like you mentioned, going over to Burien,
it's 19.5 weeks
and leaving your family for that long period of time,
especially in the winter when the passes sometimes are closed
and they can't get back home on the weekends.
I think having a support base is huge,
and we will support people coming in.
I love the diversity.
I love seeing people that are going to reach out
into their own communities and bring more people in,
but we have to love the job to bring people to the job,
and I think that's really important.
-Okay. Thank you for that.
And, Steve, I always save the toughest questions for you.
I wanted to talk about this
because this measure to allow Dreamers to become officers
earned bipartisan support from the legislature.
Police departments around the state
were generally supportive of it, too.
But I think about this new heightened focus
on our immigration system.
And if that puts a strain on law enforcement,
I'm just wondering if officers are saying, okay,
which law applies here?
We want to encourage Dreamers to be signing up for this,
but maybe we're going to be asked to deport them.
I'm just trying to figure out
how an officer would balance that out.
-It's a great question.
I'll say first and foremost that, um, in fact,
our association sent out a statement just yesterday
saying local law enforcement, sheriffs offices,
police departments focus on state laws.
We do not have any direct authority
under the federal government at all.
We are under Washington state law.
We do not house people in local jails
purely for immigration status.
And we want to say loud and clear statewide,
every chief, every sheriff,
that no one should be afraid to call 911 for their
local law enforcement because of immigration status, period.
Full stop.
Getting back to your question, the lack of stability,
the lack of predictability of this issue,
it is, of course, a controversial issue.
It's a wedge issue politically.
Let's be frank.
As we enter into a new administration,
as you mentioned, Brian,
the President-elect has indicated
that he wants to -- I think the phrase was
he wants to make a deal on DACA status.
I have yet to hear of a chief or a sheriff
who has been reluctant
or who refuses to consider DACA applicants.
I think it's a matter of, frankly,
the applicants being comfortable.
And I would just echo what the senator said,
which is trust the system.
And this is local government saying we need you.
And one of the biggest proponents of this bill
in the first place,
when I asked Council Member Barajas, you know,
we need support from sheriffs and chiefs.
And she immediately went to her sheriff,
Franklin County Sheriff Jim Raymond,
a very conservative Eastern Washington sheriff,
and he was 100% behind it.
So these are members of our community.
And that's what he said, loud and clear.
We want people with that status
to become part of law enforcement.
And I, I believe I'm certainly hopeful
that it's going to be better resolved
so that people have that stability moving forward.
-Brian, can I just follow up on something that Steve said?
He talked about the fact that we need them.
We also want them to know we want them.
These agencies, I've talked with sheriffs and police chiefs.
They want these recipients, they want these DACA recipients,
and we want them to feel welcome.
And so, you know, I will just say this again,
trust the process that we're going through.
Because these members of these communities
are going to make a huge difference in the profession
of law enforcement.
So we want them.
-I understand that it's just this uncertainty, I guess,
that Steve's talking about.
Is there a way to overcome that from a legislative level?
I'm trying to figure out how you look at this, Senator.
-So what I will say is to do what we're doing right now,
is to do some messaging.
We probably need to do a better job
of messaging this, a better job of talking about this.
And then programs like this will, I think,
make a difference.
And I'm going to every opportunity that I get,
I'm going to be out talking about this
and try and talk with other people to try and really,
really, really emphasize the great work
that we know that they're going to do
and not have them live in fear.
And that's just so unfortunate. -Yeah.
And, Monica, maybe I can draw you in here
because I know your job includes getting
recruits ready physically and mentally.
I'm just trying to figure out
how you approach a different political atmosphere
over the next four years.
Is it -- affect the way you train recruits,
or can you talk to me about that?
-I think that our curriculum is going to be what it is.
We are training people to serve their communities,
to be humble, to follow the law,
the state laws, and to do their job
and to also learn how to take care of their themselves
while they're taking care of their communities.
And so I don't see
where we're going to really change our curriculum
and what we're teaching because we teach the state law.
-Yeah, yeah.
And I guess, Senator Lovick,
to wrap up this thought here.
I know Governor-elect Ferguson has talked a lot
about getting ready for a new Trump administration,
making sure the rights of immigrants
in Washington are protected. among other things.
I mentioned Dreamers really being concerned
about the President-elect.
Do you have a concern level about the next four years
and what they're going to bring?
-Well, I think probably I do,
only because I spent a lot of time in classrooms.
And I remember being in a classroom not too long ago,
and I remember a young Hispanic student there
just looking at me
and the question she asked just indicated a lot of fear.
And so what is happening is that they're creating fear
out in the community.
And that's so unfortunate, but I believe what Steve said.
We apply the state law in this in our state.
And I think these students and these DACA recipients,
they shouldn't have to worry about this.
-Okay. -So I'm concerned.
But am I worried? Probably not.
Okay, alright. There's going to be a lot ahead
for these DACA recipients for sure.
And I know they're going to be hoping to, hopefully,
more of them will go through this program.
Monica, I wanted to talk to you
about your work in the State Patrol.
You started in 1996.
You were five years old when you started there.
-That is exactly right.
-Do I have that exactly right?
But just going down this path,
you were the first Black sergeant
the Washington State Patrol ever had in 2003.
When it comes to lack of diversity,
you have lived through that.
When it comes to not getting the same opportunities
as your colleagues, you've lived through that, too.
And it just seemed to remind me a lot
of what I was hearing from the Dreamers,
these different young people I've talked to.
And I just wanted to go down this path a little bit further,
because I know it's an issue within law enforcement, too.
How do you train officers when it comes to discrimination,
and why is that important to the future of policing?
-So I think it's really important just to do your work.
You go to work and do a good job
and sometimes it works for you and sometimes it doesn't.
But you don't give up.
You just keep working
and you keep working towards whatever your goal is.
Being the first African American female
to be promoted to sergeant was not an easy thing,
but it was so rewarding.
And I still feel rewards from that
because I still feel that moment,
and I want other people to feel that moment.
Maybe not being the first,
but having the opportunity to lead
in an organization that they love.
I love the State Patrol.
I think it's a great organization.
And was every day perfect? Absolutely not.
But every day is not perfect any place.
I would do it all over again if I had to,
because I think it is so good.
And I think also it sends a message to women and people
of color that there's a space for you,
but you have to create that space by going in.
It's not going to happen if you're on the outside of it.
And so I want the DACA recipients to know
there's a space for you.
We're opening those doors for you.
We want to see you come in,
and we're going to treat you fairly at the academy.
And then when you move on into your agency I believe
that you can have those things that you dream about.
-Yeah, I do want to talk about that a little further, though.
There -- there is some training
that you're putting recruits through
when it comes to discrimination,
trying to help them understand different communities
and what they're all about.
Could you touch on that, please?
-And it's a wide variety of training, and some --
Let me be really clear and honest.
We have pushed back on some of that training,
but we know it is good
because you're serving everybody in that community,
and everybody in that community
comes from different walks of life.
We're not teaching them everything
they'll ever know about different communities.
We're just trying to give them a taste of
and how to be respectful.
-Race and policing, things of this nature, yeah?
-Race and policing.
We talk about the Holocaust for Humanity teaches, of course,
the LGBTQIA community.
All of those people aren't just a part of our community,
they're part of our communities that we work with.
All of those people are in law enforcement,
so we're respecting our communities on the outside
of law enforcement,
but also respecting the people that you're working with.
-Brian, can I just say this?
And Monica, Director Alexander will never tell you this,
but I think she finished number one on the lieutenant's exam.
-On the sergeant's exam. -On The sergeant's exam.
And she didn't just make sergeant,
she was number one on the entire list.
And I took that test probably five times,
and it is the most competitive examination you can take.
And she is the person
that I know so many young people saw out there.
And they could look at her and say -- and say to themselves,
this is who I can be out in the community,
and I just want to commend her for that.
She's just been just a stand up person
and I really appreciate her leadership.
-Thank you. -I appreciate you saying that.
And thank you for sharing some of your story there with us,
Monica. And Senator Lovick,
I just wanted to kind of go back to some
of these different challenges going on with this larger issue
here, because I thought in the recent election
we had it just showed a split within communities
of color and immigrant populations, too.
It's this whole idea of who deserves to be here
in the United States,
that we have a broken immigration system,
and I've seen plenty of rhetoric online.
Maybe you have too about Senate Bill 6157.
If you're not a citizen,
there's no way you should have a badge and gun, et cetera.
Do you see a measure like 6157 help changing the perceptions
people have about immigrants?
Because there's a big debate going on about that now.
-I hope it will.
I hope it will help change the perception.
And I hope as we attract these young men and women
to the profession,
that people will see that they're out
just wanting to do what we've all wanted to do --
to serve in their communities.
And that's my hope.
And I think we just have to keep trying.
And I think there's no better state to try
and have this proposal than the state of Washington,
because we're going to have some great opportunities.
So my hope, and I'm a person
that's a very positive thinking person.
So my hope is that it will change the perception.
-Senator, I know there are four other states
that have a law similar to this one.
Have you heard of any other success stories?
I know California, Virginia, or some of those others out there.
Are other states having more luck with this?
-You know, I have not.
But then again, you know,
it typically takes a while for these things to --
by the time the word gets out
and we're going to get the message out,
I'm going to do a lot of things to promote this.
We're going to see some success.
It doesn't happen.
Success doesn't always happen overnight with new changes.
Change, change takes time. -Got it.
Steve, I wanted to go back to you
because I talked with an assistant director of training
in Pasco, and he was telling me in the wake of the pandemic,
the BLM protests from a few years ago,
some community members have lost
some trust in law enforcement.
He wants to build back that trust by hiring more officers
from their local communities.
Would you agree with that?
That officers need to gain back trust from the people
they serve, and that maybe these programs like hiring Dreamers
could help in that effort?
Help me put those two together, please.
-100%.
And if, you know, if you look at the last four years
and the tumult of the murder of George Floyd,
the follow up from that, some of the changes we've seen.
I mean, certainly law enforcement has been
through a lot in the last four years
and then preceding that as well.
And building back trust,
I would phrase it as we need to make sure
that law enforcement is trusted and trustworthy.
And that's part of the process that I think
that assistant chief is talking about.
And I'll go back to that comment about the communities
are the police, the police are the community.
The best recruiting is not a program,
it's not a system, it's relationships.
It's all relationships.
The Senator mentioned that he became a trooper
because somebody came up and said,
do you want to be a trooper?
I thought about the fact that a sheriff reached out to me
when I mentioned I might be interested and said,
come and see me, spend some time with me.
I guarantee my career path changed.
It's about building relationships in the community.
The communities, and Pasco is one of them,
they're doing actually pretty well on recruiting
in the face of all these challenges,
are those that are building those relationships,
that are reaching out to all parts of their community,
including DACA recipients, including persons
that aren't traditionally law enforcement officers.
And that's where we're seeing success.
That's what -- that's the future of this profession.
-I need to start wrapping up,
and I want to do that by asking
where you hope this plan to hire more Dreamers
as cops is heading, where policing is heading to maybe?
Senator Lovick, I know this has been a challenge here,
haven't had people signing up through this program as of yet.
But talk to me about the future of Senate Bill 6157.
-I think the future is bright.
I think we just have to get the message out,
go out into those communities and create more opportunities.
The fact that we have regional training academies,
we're going to see some great things happen
because people are not having to come from all --
from Eastern Washington to Burien for 19 weeks.
That's the future.
And I think with our regional training academy
is going to change -- just change the trajectory
and we're going to get more people into the program.
I'm optimistic. -Okay.
-Monica, maybe some final thoughts here.
Do you have a goal for
how many Dreamers you want to hire in the next year?
Do you have a path clear enough for that to happen?
Talk to me about this.
-We definitely have a path clear enough for it to happen,
and I want to hire as many as want to be a part of this,
this organization.
But Steve says something I think is very important.
He talked about Sheriff Raymond coming out
and saying he wanted good people.
I think we need to see more of that
from our chiefs and sheriffs
so that people feel welcomed into the organization
and I think that will make all the difference in the world.
But you bring them to me
and we're going to train them properly
and be ready to be out there.
-Okay. Thank you for that.
Steve, maybe some final thoughts on DACA recipients
becoming police officers, how you're hoping to turn
around this trend of officer shortages in our state.
-You know, whether it be immigration,
whether it be policing,
I mean, these are issues that are very -- they're intense
and they're controversial.
People have strong feelings about them.
And the issue of DACA is being able --
or DACA recipients being able to become police officers,
I think is part of this effort of a lot of good people
in our state, including Councilmember Barajas
and so many others and the people,
the senator and the director,
who are working to find common ground.
Secure borders and abilities
for DACA recipients in our communities
to become law enforcement officers
are not mutually exclusive.
These things can all happen at the same time.
And I think as people start to come together
and start to figure out ways
to move forward as a nation and as a community, now's the time.
And hopefully that's what we're going to see
over the next several months.
-Alright. Thank you all for this.
And we will be right back.
What are people saying online about Dreamers,
immigration and public safety?
One organization says...
Another person says...
We'd like to know what you think.
Send us an email at contact@seattlechannel.org,
or find us on social media.
Great to have that input, and thank you
for all of your expertise and input as well.
We will see you next time on "City Inside/Out."
♪♪