Plainclothes Investigators to Replace 2 Border Police

Ventura County will trade two of its uniformed U.S. Border Police officers for two plainclothes immigration investigators thanks to a compromise between the INS and state law enforcement officers.

The INS had originally planned to replace the four uniformed officers in the Camarillo Airport office with four plainclothes immigration inspectors--a move that local law enforcement brass complained would weaken efforts to police illegal immigrants.

“We like the uniformed presence,” said Simi Valley Police Chief Randy Adams. “We think it’s important.”

Adams said the uniformed officers are particularly important for arresting gang members police encounter. “We need front-line enforcement to give us the assistance we need,” he said. “We don’t want a bunch of individuals that aren’t trained for gang sweeps.”

Although rumors have circulated that the INS was considering closing its Ventura County office and 31 other border police offices throughout the state, a spokeswoman for the INS western regional office insisted Monday that wasn’t the case.

“We were only looking at the possibility of replacing the uniformed officers with non-uniformed officers,” said Virginia Kice. “There would still have been an office in Ventura County. Perhaps just a bigger one.”

The INS is under pressure from Congress to find 200 veteran officers to help beef up patrol efforts on the United States-Mexico border. The agency had considered taking the 200 officers from the 32 regional offices but has now decided to move only about 100, who will be replaced with plainclothes investigators with the same police powers.

Border Patrol Agent Mike Malloy said the staffing change in his office of four, which processes about 100 illegal immigrants a month, would have little effect.

“I’ve always thought our office should have a mix between patrol and investigative staff,” he said.

Malloy said his staff is so small that it lacks enough time and resources to patrol effectively anyway. Most of their energy is spent interviewing illegal immigrants who are already incarcerated at Ventura County Jail, he said.

“We don’t have enough people to patrol right now,” Malloy said. “We would need a minimum of 25 people to do effective patrol work.”

Kice said that neither Los Angeles nor San Francisco have uniformed Border Patrol officers. Instead, they use only plainclothes investigators.

“Not everyone agrees with the wisdom of putting border guards hundreds of miles from the border,” Kice said.

But Sheriff’s Chief Deputy Bob Brooks insisted that a uniformed presence makes a difference when it comes to enforcing the law in Ventura County.

We’re looking for uniformed and armed field support,” Brooks said. “We get into some pretty dicey situations, and I can’t imagine a non-uniformed officer would take the same risks as a uniformed officer.”