PHOENIX — A seventh challenge to Arizona’s tough immigration crackdown says training materials designed to teach police officers how to enforce the law give “vague and ill-defined factors” as reasons to question someone’s legal status.
Officers aren’t supposed to use a person’s race to determine whether there is reasonable suspicion they are in the country illegally.
But the lawsuit, filed Friday in federal court, said the training materials developed by state police bosses allow officers to rely on things such as whether a person speaks poor English, looks nervous or is traveling in an overcrowded vehicle. They can also take into account whether someone is wearing several layers of clothing in a hot climate, or hanging out in an area where illegal immigrants are known to look for work.
That will lead to “widespread” racial profiling of Latinos, the lawsuit says.
“An average law enforcement officer using those standards is inevitably going to focus on a person’s physical appearance or race while being sure not to say that in his or her report,” said Los Angeles-based lawyer Peter Schey, lead counsel for the plaintiffs who filed the lawsuit.
The Arizona Peace Officer Standards and Training Board, which developed the training materials, did not return a call seeking comment Saturday. The Associated Press
