HomeMy WebLinkAbout2015 12-08 Maplewood Police Prohibited from Asking Immigration Status KSTP 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS3/14/2016 Maplewood Police Prohibited from Asking Immigration Status I KSTP TV- Minneapolis and St. Paul
Maplewood Police Prohibited from Asking
Immigration Status
Updated: 1210812015 5:33 AM
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On Monday night, the city of Maplewood's Human Rights Commission voted to unanimously to prohibit
their officers from asking someone's immigration status.
Maplewood Police Chief Paul Schnell said he began re -thinking the department's policy regarding asking
about immigration status while looking at President Barack Obama's Task Force on 21 st Century Policing
report.
"Ultimately we then began to look at that and started saying, 'Do we have a policy that's in place that
ultimately protects against people having inquiries about their immigration status?,"' he said.
In September, Schnell started talking about changing his policy prohibiting his officers from asking
someone about their immigration status.
"Unless the immigration issue is central to the crime being investigated," he said.
White people make up nearly 70 percent of Maplewood's population, Asians more than 13 percent, black
people at 7.8 percent and Hispanics just over 5 percent.
Joselin Vasquez is Hispanic -American and lives in Maplewood. She said she would be offended if a police
officer asked her about her immigration status even though she is a citizen.
"That's racism," she said.
But not everyone agrees with Schnell or Vasquez on the policy change.
"I want our local police to be our eyes and ears for what is here to do us harm," Maplewood resident Bob
Zick said.
The chief could have changed it himself, since this is a department policy. But he said this is the type of
issue he wanted to get public input on since it affects so many in the community.
"We want people who are subjected to crime to feel that they could call us and know that the response they
are going get is going to be fundamentally far," he said.
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