Enforcing the law is necessary to ensure accountability and order in society, thereby contributing to a stable environment in which we can function. However, the manner in which we enforce the law is equally important.
As a practicing attorney and former federal law enforcement officer, I support the enforcement of our nation’s laws. However, the central question is not whether laws should be enforced. Rather, how should enforcement be carried out so that it advances stability and engenders trust, rather than inadvertently undermining it? In light of the administration’s approach to immigration enforcement, it may have created an unforeseen and potentially significant legal risk for law enforcement officers who have participated in these operations.
While courts have traditionally focused on how individual officers’ personal conduct can affect their credibility as a witness, organizational practices may also create impeachment risk by introducing uncertainty about how enforcement activities were carried out. Collective practices such as identity obscuration, reliance on race or ethnicity in initiating detentions and systemic departures from established procedures can undermine credibility even when an officer acts lawfully and in good faith. The practical result may be an organizationally derived impairment that follows officers into unrelated cases and expands prosecutorial disclosure obligations…