PHOENIX (AP) - Arizona police officials warned officers not to use race or ethnicity when enforcing the state's new immigration law, saying that the country is watching their every move.
In a new training video released Thursday, the officials said opponents of the law may secretly videotape officers making traffic stops, trying to ensnare them and prove that they're racially profiling Hispanics.
"Without a doubt, we're going to be accused of racial profiling no matter what we do on this," Tucson Police Chief Roberto Villasenor tells officers on the video from Arizona's police licensing board. The video is designed to teach officers how to determine when they can ask a person for proof they're in the country legally.
Officers can consider that someone doesn't speak English well, is wearing several layers of clothing in a hot climate or is hanging out in an area where illegal immigrants are known to look for work, according to the video.
They can take into account that a person doesn't have identification, tried to run away, is traveling in an overcrowded vehicle, or seems out of place and unfamiliar with the area.