Copyright Chicago Tribune
A Palatine police officer told a crowd gathering around an immigration arrest to back up — then as people watched, the officer knelt down and secured the hand of a man agents were in the process of detaining, according to body camera video obtained by the Tribune. The video, released Tuesday in a Freedom of Information Act request, sheds new light on the controversial detention that unfolded last month in a parking lot in the northwest suburb, which prompted civilians to question whether the officer’s conduct violated the Illinois TRUST Act in a protest outside police headquarters. The law, passed in 2017, prohibits local law enforcement from participating in civil immigration enforcement but allows them to maintain order. Village officials described the officer’s actions as a split-second decision meant to “stabilize” a situation. His body camera capturing the arrest depicts the officer saying: “I got this hand, you get the other one” as he joins three agents who are arresting the man as the crowd stepped backward at his direction. Palatine Mayor Jim Schwantz referred a request for comment to a statement from police Chief William Nord made at a village meeting last week. Nord said that the officer had followed state law and had been concerned for both the safety of the man being detained — observing that one of the agents had been restraining the man by his neck — as well as the federal agents and civilians at the scene. “If (the officer) did not step in and expedite the arrest, this could have turned into a much worse situation,” Nord’s statement read. “He believed he had to act immediately to help expedite the encounter and get the agents off of the individual.” The officer’s body camera footage does not appear to show people interfering in the arrest, although the dozen or so people on scene were shouting and filming one of the thousands of arrests of immigrants without legal status that have taken place in and around Chicago throughout Operation Midway Blitz. As the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown has resulted in frequent clashes between immigration enforcement agents and community members, local police agencies have drawn a distinction between aiding in immigration arrests and ensuring the safety of people out in public. The TRUST Act does not prevent law enforcement from “taking action to maintain peace and ensure public safety within their jurisdiction,” according to a fact sheet from the Illinois attorney general’s office. In that vein, local police have routinely been involved in the response to federal enforcement actions. They’ve directed traffic, served as a physical presence between incensed residents and federal agents and tried to keep order at tense public demonstrations that have been a near-daily occurrence since the federal government stepped up its enforcement in September. In Broadview, Illinois State Police and the Cook County sheriff’s office have essentially taken over law enforcement outside a federal processing center located in the west suburb after federal agents deployed copious amounts of chemical crowd controls on protesters who were attempting to hamper their movements. In Chicago, officers forming skirmish lines between neighbors and agents have been hit with tear gas and dodged flash-bangs alongside residents as agents have reacted to objects thrown at them and left the scene. All local law enforcement officers in Illinois are barred from participating in federal immigration enforcement. But the Palatine video highlights the thin line between keeping the peace and assisting in civil immigration enforcement. Just before noon Oct. 27, the officer arrived in a parking lot at 1180 E. Dundee Road, encountering about a dozen people who were screaming and filming on their phones as three federal agents tried to handcuff a man lying face down on the ground. Five or six people were walking toward the agents as the officer approached, per the video, and began to retreat as he got closer. “Hey, hey back up,” the officer said to people as they kept shouting at the agents. “Are you guys with DHS right?” “Yes we are, tell them to back up!” an agent yells in response. As he puts on black gloves, the officer tells the crowd to back up: “I understand. Let them do their job,” he said, giving instructions in English and Spanish. According to the bodycam, the crowd — though still yelling — appeared to heed his instructions and move back. The officer walked toward the arrest, asking: “Do you want me to help you or do you got it?” According to the after-action report, the officer became frustrated with the agents as they tried to handcuff the man they were holding and decided to take the man’s other arm because he was “becoming increasingly distressed and out of breath.” He is heard on his body camera video saying, “Let me get this hand.” Afterward, an approaching bystander asks a question. In Spanish, the officer responds: “The Palatine police have nothing to do with the situation.” He then asked the immigration agents if he could get one of their business cards. “I don’t have a card but I’m glad to give you my name and badge number,” the agent responded. The body camera also captures other Palatine police officers talking to civilians at the scene. One officer, after the arrest had been executed and agents had left the parking lot, tried to explain the position local police departments like his had to take when federal agents made arrests. “We don’t assist or interfere,” he said. “That’s, like, a state law.” The police report, obtained in a Freedom of Information request, described the crowd as growing “larger and … noticeably agitated as they were encroaching upon the agents and yelling insults at them” and stated he was concerned about “potential of dangerous escalation of a situation for all individuals involved.” A Nov. 2 after-action report by Deputy Chief Brian Growney, also obtained in a Freedom of Information request, states that the officer arrived on scene, saw a car with a window smashed out, and could tell that agents had used pepper spray shortly before his arrival. The agents, according to the report, were “exhausted” and lying on top of the man they were trying to arrest. “The officers did not appear to know what they were doing and/or were not trained in proper police handcuffing or defensive tactics,” the report stated, going on to describe the scene overall as a “stressful, tense and rapidly devolving situation.” The eight-page after-action report includes three pages discussing whether the officer had been in compliance with the TRUST Act. “(The officer) was not called upon for assistance by ICE, nor was this a pre-planned cooperative situation,” Growney wrote. This was a spontaneous and volatile event that did not afford (the officer) the luxury to plan and carefully calculate his response.” It concludes: “I do not believe there was a better or more just action that (the officer) could have done in this situation.”
