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  1. #1
    Senior Member JohnDoe2's Avatar
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    ESCONDIDO: ACLU wants audit of police checkpoint program

    ESCONDIDO: ACLU wants audit of police checkpoint program

    By EDWARD SIFUENTES esifuentes@nctimes.com
    Tuesday, March 13, 2012 5:00 am

    The American Civil Liberties Union of San Diego and Imperial Counties called for an independent financial audit of Escondido's checkpoint program to make sure the city does not illegally profit from impounding vehicles during the operations.

    The civil rights organization released a report Monday raising questions about the checkpoints based on an investigation conducted by documentary filmmaker John Carlos Frey.

    "We are not prepared to say that Escondido is committing fraud, but the information that we have strongly suggests that a financial audit is in order," said Kevin Keenan, executive director of the ACLU in San Diego.

    Frey said Monday that his investigation uncovered city documents, including towing contracts, that indicate the total costs of towing vehicles have skyrocketed from 2004 to 2011. Frey released a five-minute video outlining the results of his investigation, which included interviews with activists, Escondido's police chief and a woman deported after a checkpoint.

    Police Chief Jim Maher said Frey's report is biased and is aimed at stopping the department's checkpoints. He said the checkpoints are used to make Escondido streets safer, not to generate money for the city.

    "We don't do anything based on revenues or fees," Maher said.

    Sobriety and driver's license checkpoints have long been opposed by some Latino and immigrant rights activists in the city. Activists say the checkpoints appear to target primarily Latinos and immigrant drivers.

    The Police Department holds about two checkpoints a month, paid for with grants from the state Office of Traffic Safety.

    The city generated more than $765,000 in 2011 from towing contracts and impound processing fees. It generated $839,000 in 2010 and $909,000 in 2009, according to the ACLU report. Those figures do not include the state grants that the city received each year, about $260,000 in 2011, $268,000 in 2010 and $300,000 in 2009, according to city records.

    Towing companies went from each paying the city $25,000 in 2004 to seize vehicles for the city, including checkpoints, to $100,000 in 2011. The companies generate money from the contracts by charging drivers towing and storage fees. After protests from the towing companies last year, the city reduced the contracts to $75,000 per towing company.

    State law makes it illegal for cities that receive grants to profit from checkpoints, according to the ACLU.

    Frey said the department is using questionable accounting methods to justify the $450,000 it receives in towing contracts from six companies, including increasing the amount of time that is required to process each vehicle that police impound.

    Escondido has increased labor costs associated with towing, administrative fees and overhead, according to the documents. Line items that were not in previous cost estimates in 2004 and 2007 appear in the 2011 estimates, including costs for the use of bulletproof vests and weapons.

    According to 2004 and 2007 reports, the city calculated that each tow required a total of 33 minutes. In 2011, those times increased to up to 187 minutes.

    Maher said he was unaware of the 2004 figures cited by Frey and the ACLU, but added that the numbers the department uses have been vetted by city officials, including the police services manager.

    In fact, Maher said the city recently reduced the impound processing fee, which drivers must pay to recover their vehicles, from $180 to $100 when vehicles were impounded at a grant-funded sobriety checkpoint.

    Chris Cochran, a spokesman for the state Office of Traffic Safety, said Monday that the office did not ask the city to reduce its impound fees.

    In his report, Frey also criticized the department's practice of turning drivers over to immigration authorities.

    Frey, 48, said immigration agents may not be present at checkpoints but "they are just a phone call away." In his report, he interviewed a woman who was deported to Tijuana after being stopped at a checkpoint in 2008.

    "These are de facto immigration checkpoints," Frey said Monday.

    During the checkpoints, police check for driver's licenses, drunken drivers and vehicle safety violations.

    Maher said unlicensed drivers can be turned over to immigration authorities only if those drivers are found to be in the country illegally and if they have been convicted of a crime or are wanted by immigration authorities.

    The woman who was interviewed in Frey's video was turned over to immigration agents because a federal judge had ordered her deported, Maher said. The chief said using the woman in the video without mentioning that she was ordered deported by a judge was evidence that the report was biased.

    Frey has produced several documentaries about immigration and the border. He released "The Invisible Chapel," about a Catholic, open-air chapel built by migrant workers in McGonigle Canyon in 2006. The chapel was torn down that year after neighbors and anti-illegal-immigration activists complained that it was illegally built.

    Frey also produced a documentary focusing on the workers in the canyon, called "The Invisible Mexicans of Deer Canyon."

    In November 2009, Frey was arrested along with John Hunter, the brother of former Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-El Cajon, when they strung a line of buoys across the All-American Canal near El Centro. They were attempting to attract attention to the hundreds of illegal immigrants who have died attempting to swim across the canal.

    Call staff writer Edward Sifuentes at 760-740-3511.

    ESCONDIDO: ACLU wants audit of police checkpoint program
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  2. #2
    Senior Member JohnDoe2's Avatar
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    NO AMNESTY

    Don't reward the criminal actions of millions of illegal aliens by giving them citizenship.


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    Please support our fight against illegal immigration by joining ALIPAC's email alerts here https://eepurl.com/cktGTn

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    Senior Member JohnDoe2's Avatar
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    NO AMNESTY

    Don't reward the criminal actions of millions of illegal aliens by giving them citizenship.


    Sign in and post comments here.

    Please support our fight against illegal immigration by joining ALIPAC's email alerts here https://eepurl.com/cktGTn

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