Oakland police chief under fire for response to raid by federal agents

Anne Kirkpatrick (left) talks after being sworn in as Oakland’s permanent police chief of Police at an Oakland City Hall ceremony Feb. 27. Her response to an August operation by federal agents has been criticized by a city commissioner and several City Council members. less Anne Kirkpatrick (left) talks after being sworn in as Oakland’s permanent police chief of Police at an Oakland City Hall ceremony Feb. 27. Her response to an August operation by federal agents has been ... more Photo: Liz Hafalia, The Chronicle Buy photo Photo: Liz Hafalia, The Chronicle Image 1 of / 1 Caption Close Oakland police chief under fire for response to raid by federal agents 1 / 1 Back to Gallery

Oakland’s police chief is facing a complaint from a city commissioner and questions from City Council members over her department’s assistance in an immigration-related operation by federal agents that resulted in deportation proceedings against a West Oakland resident.

At issue is whether Chief Anne Kirkpatrick made false statements and whether the department’s involvement violated Oakland’s sanctuary-city ordinances that bar police officers from cooperating with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

At the request of Homeland Security Investigations — the criminal division of ICE — Kirkpatrick agreed to send a sergeant, two police officers and two marked police cars on Aug. 16 to provide traffic enforcement while federal agents conducted what they said was a human trafficking investigation at the home of a Guatemalan family.

Federal agents detained two adult brothers. Records indicate that deportation proceedings began against one, Santos Alberto, but that no criminal charges have been filed — contradicting a claim Kirkpatrick later made and meaning that city police officers provided aid to an immigration operation that only saw civil, not criminal, consequences.

Councilwomen Desley Brooks and Rebecca Kaplan have questioned why the police assisted ICE in this case.

In a written response to the council members’ questions, Kirkpatrick defended her actions, saying traffic enforcement was needed in part to reduce the risk of “friendly fire” — in which confused city police officers might shoot at armed plainclothes federal agents, or vice versa. And Kirkpatrick reiterated that she ordered the officers not to participate in the operation itself.

Brian Hofer, chairman of the city’s Privacy Advisory Commission, took issue with both the involvement of Oakland police officers and Kirkpatrick’s statements around the operation. He and seven others concerned about the issue filed a formal complaint against the chief with the citizen police review board and the internal affairs division of the Police Department.

Their complaint points to several purportedly false statements Kirkpatrick made about the operation. At a September town hall meeting, she said that one person had been charged with a crime and that it was “not a deportation matter,” both of which were untrue, the complaint says.

The Police Department initially said on Aug. 16 that federal agents were investigating the sex trafficking of juveniles, but later statements amended the language to “human trafficking.” A news release that day also said the Police Department no longer had an agreement in place with Homeland Security Investigations.

In fact, while the City Council in July voted unanimously to immediately rescind the contract — under which police officers could work on task forces with federal agents to investigate transnational crimes — City Administrator Sabrina Landreth did not send notice to the federal agency until the end of August, and its cancellation didn’t go into effect until a month later.

Officer Johnna Watson, a police spokeswoman, said she couldn’t answer questions about the issues because the case is now the subject of an internal affairs complaint.

In her report to the council ahead of the meeting, Kirkpatrick said the department will start posting after-action reports within two weeks of any immigration operation in the city, detailing what happened, how many police officers were involved and at what cost.

ICE spokesman James Schwab said Tuesday that he couldn’t comment on the case because the investigation is still open. Abraham Simmons, a spokesman for the U.S. attorney’s office in the Northern District of California, did not provide information about any criminal proceedings.

Kimberly Veklerov is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: kveklerov@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @kveklerov