Montgomery County Republican Party Chairman Mark Uncapher today called on County Executive Ike Leggett to allow our police force to do its work to keep all residents safe. “It is unconscionable that our county’s residents are three times more likely to be the victims of a violent crime than in neighboring Fairfax County,” Uncapher stated. Uncapher faulted recently imposed restrictions preventing individual Montgomery County police officers from contacting the Department of Homeland Security directly when arresting someone for violent crimes and/or weapons offenses.
In September 2009 County Executive Ike Leggett and Police Chief Manger issued a new policy claiming that the "sensitive nature of the issue" required all requests for information or assistance from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to go through the Director or Deputy Director of the Special Investigations Division within the Department. This was a reversal from February 2009 when officers were allowed to report the name of a suspect to agents of ICE so that they could be checked against ICE's database. The old policy allowed officers to "notify ICE by telephone as soon as possible after the arrest."
It should not surprise us that a recently released report from the Montgomery County Office of Legislative Oversight commissioned by Councilman George Leventhal concluded that Montgomery County is experiencing three time as much violent crime as Fairfax County. Montgomery's rate of violent crime is 235 per 100,000, as compared with 78 per 100,000 in Fairfax. (See http://www.montgomerycountymd.gov/content/council/olo/reports/pdf/2010-5.pdf ; http://www.montgomerycountymd.gov/Apps/Council/PressRelease/PR_details.asp?PrID=6210)
"The report needs to be a very serious wake-up call about the the increase in crime our county is experiencing," Uncapher stated. "The County is tying the hands of officers with red tape. Officers are now constrained when arresting suspects of violent crimes to check with ICE.
Not only are we are putting Montgomery County citizens at risk, we are also putting non-citizens at risk too. Let's be clear, preventing the police from looking into the status of illegal alien criminals puts people in their immediate community at the greatest risk. They are the most likely to be crime victims. In an effort to not offend community activists in the Hispanic community politically, Ike Leggett is putting that community at far greater risk from violent crime and gang intimidation. This is example of politicians showing less concern for the crime victims than crime perpetrators."
released February 1, 2010
MCGOP CONVENTION!