A loss of trust

In 54 years in journalism I’ve met a lot of great people in law enforcement, from local police to county sheriffs to state police all the way to the FBI. Many became good friends.

All of the best realized that their authority came not from instilling fear in people, but from earning their trust. The respect of the badge they wore over their hearts gave them more power than the guns on their hips.

They believed in the motto of many police departments: To serve and protect. Not to scare and repress.

So we had state conservation officer Frank Starr teaching hunter safety to Boy Scouts like me in a career that made him so beloved that Storm Lake dedicated a lakeshore park to him.

In school, “Officer Friendly” Pete Erickson showed the kids they need not fear the police. The men and women in blue were there to help, not hurt.

When Deputy Sheriff Don McClure was in charge of the Buena Vista County Jail 20 years ago, he strived to treat inmates as if they were members of his family.

The late SLPD Captain Joe Hoye was a friend to all from our school days at St. Mary’s. His brother Pat, another All-American guy, rose to command the Iowa State Patrol.

When Russ Bair retired as Chief of the Storm Lake Police in 1978, this community respected him so much that the street passing by the Bair home north of St. Mary’s Church was named for him.

All these dedicated law officers had the same traits: they told the truth and treated all people with respect.

Now, however, the work by these and countless other law enforcement officers in building public trust over many years is being destroyed by the lawless and heartless actions of  thugs masquerading as immigration officers in cities across America. They’re terrorizing — and killing — the people of the Twin Cities, where local police worked for five years to rebuild trust after the murder of George Floyd by three renegade Minneapolis cops. Relations had improved so much that during the past year, not a single shot was fired by Minneapolis police. But in just the past three weeks, three people were shot there by the feds. Two of them — peaceful protesters — died.

The actions of these renegade federal agents are having an adverse effect on community relations with local police across the nation. The chiefs of several police departments in the metropolitan Twin Cities area said so last week. The chief of Faribault, Minn., a small city south of Minneapolis, said calls for service from immigrants have dried up as a growing number would rather endure crime like domestic abuse than deal with cops they no longer trust. They don’t differentiate between federal and local authorities, not when masked ICE and Border Patrol agents, driving unmarked cars, wear combat uniforms emblazoned with POLICE in big block letters. This distrust has seeped into Storm Lake’s immigrant community.

Local authorities feel they don’t have the power to go after lawless federal agents. So local cops stand by as feds abuse residents and break into homes without proper warrants. In Minneapolis, the feds, who outnumber local police 5-1, won’t allow local police to investigate agents accused of crimes as heinous as murder. The feds have compromised and even destroyed evidence, hidden the identities of lawless agents and lied about what they did.

No one disputes the right of the federal government to enforce immigration laws, but ICE is out of control and dangerous, not only to citizens but to themselves. They are poorly trained and reckless. Most police departments forbid shooting at a motor vehicle except under the most extraordinary circumstances — for example, if there is gunfire coming from inside the vehicle. A motor vehicle with an incapacitated driver becomes an out-of-control missile endangering other officers and innocent bystanders. Properly trained cops don’t reach into a car through an open window, because the cop could be dragged by the vehicle. And smart police don’t stand in front of or behind a vehicle. Most federal agents get about six months training; ICE agents get about six weeks.

There are people within the Department of Homeland Security who are disgusted by the tactics used by their colleagues, but they have been silenced — or are afraid to speak. The agency desperately needs people — especially leaders — with the moral character and good sense of Russ Bair, Joe Hoye, Pete Erickson, Don McClure and Frank Starr. Law officers they can trust.

That isn’t happening.