When I went to meet my Mexican immigrant wife who was learning English in the counselor's office at Van Nuys Adult Night School (Van Nuys is a district of Los Angeles) , I saw an LAPD ad on the bulletin board. It was an ad to recruit candidates to become LAPD police officers. I was surprised that in the sales pitch, it said
Are there non-citizen cops in the LAPD?
Capt Kevin F. MCarthy
Risk Management
that applicants did not have to be American citizens as long as they had applied for citizenship and would become a citizen within three years.
I started to wonder if the LAPD had a check and follow-up system which would assure that those non-citizen candidates who were recruited three years before, had indeed become U.S. citizens.
Under the California Public Records Act, government agencies are obligated to provide public information to anyone in the public who requests it. Here is the text of my letter of February 12, 2002, to the LAPD's Risk Management Division.
=========================================
According to the information on the LAPD's own website: "The City of Los Angeles requires that a Police Officer candidate be a United States citizen, or that a non-citizen be a permanent resident alien who, in accordance with the requirements of the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS), is eligible and has applied for citizenship. During the selection process, each non-citizen will be required to prove that his/her application for citizenship was accepted by INS prior to the date of application for employment. California State law requires that citizenship be granted within three years after the employment application date. For information regarding citizenship requirements, please contact the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) of the Federal Government."
By way of this letter, I am requesting the following information:
How does the LAPD verify that an officer has received his/her U.S. citizenship within the three years after the employment application date?
=========================================
The answer I got is as follows:
"...The Department interprets your request as one for the records, as that term is defined in the Act, outlining the process by which compliance with the U.S. citizenship requirement for police officer appointees is verified. The department does not currently maintain any written policy on this matter, therefore, there are no records responsive to your request...." (Letter signed by Kevin F. McCarthy, Captain, Commanding Officer Risk Management Division)
=========================================
Translation: The LAPD does not know if non-citizen officers have become citizens within three years of being hired.
When the INS receives any form and the accompanying fee, it mails an acknowledgment to the applicant, that they received that form. To apply for Naturalization, one needs to be a legal alien resident and fill out INS form N-400. The only "proof" anyone needs to apply to the LAPD, is the acknowledgment from the INS that they have applied for naturalization.. Simply put, any legal alien can download a form N-400 and submit it to CIS (Citizenship and Immigration Service) along with the filing fee of to receive an acknowledgment. But what does the LAPD do three years from the date that the officer applied to the LAPD to verify the completion of the citizenship process?
Answer: NOTHING!
According the LAPD's Captain Kevin F. McCarthy:
THE LAPD DOES NOT VERIFY COMPLETION OF THE CITIZENSHIP PROCESS.
