ESCONDIDO: Police chief at the center of immigration debate
Four years into his tenure, Maher continues checkpoints

By EDWARD SIFUENTES
Posted: July 17, 2010 6:03 pm | (16) Comments

When Escondido police Chief Jim Maher took over the department, he said dealing with immigration-related issues was one of his top priorities.

In some ways, it still is.

Last week, Maher, 54, marked his four-year anniversary as chief of police of Escondido ---- an inland North County city where the median household income is about $66,000 year and Latinos account for about 45 percent of the 145,000 residents.

He also recently marked his 30th year with the force.

Maher, who lives in Murrieta with his wife, Eva, has three grown children. A Syracuse, N.Y., native, Maher came to the department after serving in the Marines as a military police officer. He has served as a public information officer, detective lieutenant and captain, among other duties, during his time with the department.

In the last four years, Maher has seen the department's budget squeezed, moved the force into a new headquarters building, conducted one of its most high-profile murder investigations and watched the city's crime rate fall to a 30-year low last year.

Maher was appointed chief in July 2006, after Chief Duane White retired that same year.

"I took over a well-run department," Maher said in a recent interview in the second floor, corner office of the new Escondido Police and Fire Headquarters building.

"It's true that when I became chief we hit a difficult time," he added, referring to the city's budget woes.

Earlier this year, the police officers agreed to defer some paid holidays and give up stipends for uniforms as part of a two-year labor contract that will reduce their collective compensation by more than $700,000 a year. It was a move to help alleviate the city's budget crisis by shrinking the Police Department's annual $34 million budget.

"This year has been the worst year because there's so much anxiety about layoffs, unfilled vacant positions and cuts in management staff," Maher said.

Immigration policy

However, it is the chief's checkpoint and immigration policies that have grabbed the public's attention.

Though he has many critics, Maher's policies on checkpoints have plenty of supporters, including a majority of the City Council. He has made it a point to go out into the community to explain his positions.

Maher has steadfastly defended his oft-criticized policy of using frequent checkpoints to curb the city's hit-and-run crashes, which he says are largely attributed to unlicensed drivers. He also recently unveiled a partnership with U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement to arrest and deport criminal illegal immigrants.

Critics say the checkpoints are aimed largely at illegal immigrants, most of whom are Latino and ineligible to apply for licenses due to their immigration status. Maher denies the charge, saying that unlicensed drivers are dangerous no matter what their immigration status or color is.

In fact, Maher says he supports giving illegal immigrants driving privileges with some conditions. They would have to go through a criminal background check, their licenses would have to look different than those for legal residents and the licenses would not be able to be used for any purpose other than driving.

"The only controversy with the checkpoints, in my opinion, are the activists." Maher said. "The activists can continue to claim it's designed towards Latinos and it's unfair ... it's all rhetoric. Whether you're legal or illegal or black or white or brown or Asian, it doesn't matter. The state requires you to have a license."

Maher, sitting behind his desk in his office, often turned to notes and his community liaison Leticia Garduno for reminders on points he wanted to emphasize. With his cropped hair and trimmed mustache, and dressed in civilian clothes, the chief looked an everyman. He smiled and quipped occasionally, but his demeanor shifted when he talked about his detractors, his blue eyes sharpening and his cheeks reddening.

One of the chief's most outspoken critics, Bill Flores, a retired assistant sheriff who lives in Escondido, said the checkpoints and the working relationship with immigration agencies alienate illegal immigrants.

Flores, a spokesman for El Grupo, a North County-based coalition of human rights advocacy groups, said he sees the checkpoints as an extension of other city efforts to drive out illegal immigrants, such as the City Council's failed 2006 ordinance barring landlords from renting to illegal immigrants.

El Grupo called on the city last year to replace Maher.

Center of attention

The city and its Police Department have become a hotbed in the debate over illegal immigration.

A few months before Maher took over as chief in 2006, Escondido police arrested about two dozen people during a week of student demonstrations against proposed federal legislation cracking down on illegal immigration.

Just days before Maher was sworn in as chief, Councilwoman Marie Waldron proposed that Escondido adopt an ordinance to prohibit landlords from renting to illegal immigrants. The ordinance was adopted, challenged in court and later withdrawn.

Maher said after his swearing-in ceremony that he wanted to make amends with the immigrant community.

"My concern is that this immigration issue certainly has the ability to polarize the community, and I want to keep the community connected," Maher said at the time.

In a series of community meetings, Maher spelled out his immigration policy to various groups, including Latinos. He said the department would not participate in a federal program, known as 287(g). The federal program trains police officers to enforce immigration laws nor would U.S. Border Patrol agents participate in police checkpoints.

However, the department would continue to cooperate with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents to deport illegal immigrant gang members, Maher said. Since the early 1990s, at least one immigration agent has worked out of the department's headquarters and assisted its anti-gang unit, Maher said.

New ground

In mid-May, the department took its partnership with ICE a step further by adding two more agents, whose main duties are to help police officers identify and deport all criminal illegal immigrants. Maher said those agents have helped identify more than 100 criminal illegal immigrants, including child molesters and drug dealers.

While some advocates have criticized the department's increased cooperation with immigration authorities, others say its efforts don't go far enough.

Patricia Bennett, an Escondido resident who heads the grass-roots group Citizens of Escondido for Road Safety, said she supports the chief's efforts on checkpoints and immigration, but wishes the department would enlist in the 287(g) program.

"There is always more ways where we'd like to see more enforcement," Bennett said.

Maher said the program is not necessary in Escondido.

"I never thought it was necessary because we have a great working relationship with ICE," Maher said. "We have no need for a 287(g) program that would really make it difficult to get cooperation from the immigrant community."

Amber

Critics, including El Grupo, have implied the department's focus on checkpoints and immigration has taken resources from fighting crime, such as the murder of 14-year-old Amber Dubois by registered sex offender John Albert Gardner III, who lived a few miles from where she disappeared. Maher roundly rejected that assertion.

"It appears that the EPD continues its preoccupation with temporary impoundment of cars ... rather than searching for missing children or appropriately monitoring registered sex offenders who prey on them," El Grupo said in a travel advisory issued against the city on Tuesday.

Amber vanished on Feb. 13, 2009, while walking to school. The highly publicized case came to an end after Gardner was arrested for the murder of Poway teen Chelsea King earlier this year.

On March 6, a little over a year after Amber went missing, Gardner led police to a remote area north of the Pala Indian Reservation where police found Amber's remains.

"We did everything we could possibly do," Maher said.

Maher has steadfastly refused to discuss the case in any detail.

The chief abruptly walked out of an interview last week scheduled to discuss the investigation.

Despite the budget troubles and the criticism over his policies, Maher said he has no plans to retire anytime soon.

"I get a lot of support and I feel in my heart that we're doing the right thing," Maher said.

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