Special Order 40 is a

police The police are a constituted body of persons empowered by a state, with the aim to enforce the law, to ensure the safety, health and possessions of citizens, and to prevent crime and civil disorder. Their lawful powers include arrest and th ...

mandate implemented in 1979 by the

Los Angeles Police Department The Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD), officially known as the City of Los Angeles Police Department, is the municipal police department of Los Angeles, California. With 9,974 police officers and 3,000 civilian staff, it is the third-large ...

(LAPD), its Police Chief

Daryl Gates Daryl Gates (born Darrel Francis Gates; August 30, 1926 – April 16, 2010) was the Chief of the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) from 1978 to 1992. His length of tenure in this position was second only to that of William H. Parker. As Chief ...

and the

Los Angeles City Council The Los Angeles City Council is the legislative body of the City of Los Angeles in California. The council is composed of 15 members elected from single-member districts for four-year terms. The president of the council and the president pro tem ...

preventing LAPD officers from questioning people for the sole purpose of determining their

immigration Immigration is the international movement of people to a destination country of which they are not natives or where they do not possess citizenship in order to settle as permanent residents or naturalized citizens. Commuters, tourists, a ...

status. The mandate was passed in an effort to encourage undocumented aliens to report crimes without intimidation. The first section of the order states:

2008 incident

In 2008, Special Order 40 came under increased fire from conservative commentators Doug McIntyre,

Kevin James Kevin George Knipfing (born April 26, 1965), better known by his stage name Kevin James, is an American comedian and actor. In television, James played Doug Heffernan on ''The King of Queens'' from 1998 to 2007, and receieved a Primetime Emmy ...

, Walter Moore and various other figures in the public eye for what they saw as allowing the scenario that resulted in the homicide of Jamiel Shaw II by Pedro Espinoza, an illegal immigrant and gang member. The murder of Shaw was linked to Special Order 40 by its opponents because the alleged assailant had been arrested by Culver City police and then later released by the

Los Angeles County Jail The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department (LASD), officially the County of Los Angeles Sheriff's Department, is a law enforcement agency serving Los Angeles County, California. LASD is the largest sheriff's department in the United States a ...

, although those two jurisdictions are separate and distinct from the

City of Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

and therefore were not subject to Special Order 40. In the wake of the Shaw murder, the Los Angeles City Council considered amending Special Order 40 with language specifying that police notify immigration authorities if that individual was not in the country legally. Then-retired Los Angeles Police Chief Daryl Gates spoke to the council to defend Special Order 40. He mentioned that the order already mandates that when law violators are arrested, the first thing police are supposed to do is notify immigration if they believe they're undocumented. The order was also defended by then Police Chief William J. Bratton. The City Council eventually chose not to amend the order.

References

External links

*Gates DF (1979-11-27)
LAPD Special Order 40, original version.
Viewed 2010-04-30.
City of Los Angeles: REPORT OF THE RAMPART INDEPENDENT REVIEW PANEL - A Report to the Los Angeles Board of Police Commissioners Concerning Special Order 40Los Angeles Police Department: Newsroom - LAPD Holds Community Meeting Regarding Special Order 40Los Angeles Police Department: Chief's Message, June 2005
(contains comments from

Chief of Police Chief may refer to: Title or rank Military and law enforcement * Chief master sergeant, the ninth, and highest, enlisted rank in the U.S. Air Force and U.S. Space Force * Chief of police, the head of a police department * Chief of the b ...

William J. Bratton on page 2 about his May 2005 clarification of S.O. 40)
Walter Moore: Jamiel's Law
(actual text of proposed ordinance authored by Walter Moore in the wake of the homicide of Jamiel Shaw II)

(official web site) {{LAPD Special Order 40 Illegal immigration to the United States

2008 incident

See also

References

Further reading

External links