May 24, 2020

Mayor Lauren McLean

150 N Capitol Blvd

Boise, ID 83702

Dear Mayor,

Code 3 to 1 is a group of retired police officers and fire fighters living in the

Treasure Valley. Our membership consists of over 200 people with most of our

members originating from California, Oregon and Washington. We have vast

experience watching those three states falter from greatness due to misguided

government policies.

Unfortunately, your final transition team report entitled “A More Equitable City for

Everyone” has some of the same misguided government policies that ruined

three great states. We want to bring this to your attention so that you and your

team can avoid the same mistakes that we watched happen in our former home

states. We specifically want to address the following items from your report that

will have a negative impact on surrounding cities and counties in regards to crime

and community health.

JUVENILE DETENTION FACILITIES

We agree that we must detain juvenile offenders as a last resort. However,

shutting down juvenile detention is detrimental to the health of Boise and

surrounding cities and counties. California has already shut down a majority of

juvenile detention facilities at the state level, but young offenders are more

criminally sophisticated than they ever have been before.

We do have criminal gangs and organizations in the Treasure Valley. These

same criminal gangs will use minors knowing that they will not receive

punishment as an adult would. As an example, if juvenile detention facilities are

abolished, murders, rapes and drug dealing will be done by minors instead of

adult members because there is no punishment for them. The misguided policy

of shutting down detention facilities will actually put our youth in greater danger.

We saw this in California. As an example, a number of our members were gang

and drug investigators in the Los Angeles and San Francisco regions. As

California implemented the same juvenile justice system that you envisioned in

your report, we saw adults utilize juveniles for heinous crimes like murder,

assaults, human trafficking of young girls and drug dealing. What was originally

implemented to help youth actually created more harms not just for the juveniles

of California, but for the community that was victimized by them as well.

ENDING COLLABORATION WITH IMMIGRATION AND CUSTOMS ENFORCEMENT

You may not be aware that the State of California implemented a policy of not

allowing law enforcement to coordinate and work with ICE. In your plan for the

future of Boise, you would like to implement that same policy. However, our

members worked the front lines when California implemented the plan you wish

for. The plan resulted in criminal aliens, many with violent pasts, being let go.

After being released into the community, they went on to commit violent crime

including murder. This policy is misguided and harms our communities.

To make matters even worse, law enforcement could no longer work with ICE on

issues like human trafficking. Overnight, we lost valuable federal money and

resources which prevented us from rescuing immigrant women and immigrant

juveniles from human traffickers. ICE simply has resources that Boise does not.

In the end, this misguided policy actually harms the immigrant population we are

trying to protect.

CHARGING DECISIONS IN CRIMINAL COMPLAINTS INVOLVING IMMIGRANTS

A number of our members worked in areas where the charging attorney was

directed to base their charging decisions on the defendant’s immigration status.

According to your transition team report, this is the same type of charging

decisions you would like the Boise City Attorney to make.

Again, while well intentioned, this harms not only your community but others as

well. We have seen charging attorneys not include violent crime in their charges

solely based on immigration status. This victimizes the victim again. The victim of

the original crime was harmed by the defendant, but is again victimized by

improper charging practices by the government. The victim never truly gets the

justice they deserve. A good example is a domestic violence victim that is abused

by an illegal immigrant. The immigrant is never dealt with as the justice system

was set up to do and the domestic violence victim continues to be terrorized by

the abuser. This is contrary to what our founding fathers established.

DIVERTING DRUG CASES TO RESOURCES OTHER THAN INCARCERATION

In your Transition Report, you state that you want to move all drug cases and

convictions to resources other than incarceration. California was the first to do

this under Proposition 47. What resulted was an increase in crime, including

violent crime, in California communities. People that should have been in custody

were out on the street committing crimes and continuing their criminal behavior.

Although well intentioned, it will actually cause our citizens to be victimized at an

increasing rate. Prop 47 was one of the significant events that started the decline

of quality of life in California.

Jail for drug defendants actually serves two purposes: 1) to allow the person to

be in an environment where they can’t get drugs or get high. It allows the person

to detox from drugs and to be away from triggers that initiate their drug use. From

our experience, most drug defendants do not want to stop using and this is an

opportunity for them to experience sobriety. 2) Another reason for incarceration is

to protect the public. When people are high on drugs, they commit crime. They

do not think like a rational person does and this results in harm to our community.

To understand how this policy will impact Boise and surrounding communities,

look no further than California Proposition 47.

BOISE POLICY WILL NEGATIVELY IMPACT ALL OF ADA, CANYON, OWYHEE, GEM, ELMORE AND BOISE COUNTIES

Some of our members worked for large agencies like Portland, Los Angeles,

Seattle, San Francisco, San Diego and Oakland. However, most of our members

worked for agencies that surrounded those metropolises. We saw first hand how

those large city policies affected our communities. As criminals were set free,

they invaded surrounding cities with low crime rates and a good quality of life.

We saw as they destroyed our safe and clean communities.

Your decisions affect all of the surrounding 6 counties and the cities therein. It will

increase public spending to defeat the crime that will increase dramatically. How

do we know this? History is a predictor of the future. We have seen it time and

again in the cities we protected. There is a reason so many of us fled to the

Treasure Valley. We came here because we saw good governance and an

absence of the policies that we saw destroy our home states.

Idahoans constantly complain about California, Portland and Seattle. We

understand Idahoans frustration and we agree with them. However, if you want to

keep from becoming the next San Francisco, Oakland, LA, Portland or Seattle,

we must avoid the policies they enacted or we will suffer the same fate.

We write this letter to you because we are residents of Boise and the surrounding

communities and we are, frankly, scared of the policies you are proposing. We

watched those policies become law where we worked and then we watched

helplessly as it tore our communities apart. There will be consequences for the

policies you wish to enact.

But, we are not here simply to warn you. We offer our experience in government

to help you in your decision making process. Our membership consists of people

from all ranks within the police and fire service. We have people at the line level,

we have chiefs, we also have people that worked refugee, immigrant and

underserved populations. Our members consult to other government entities all

over the nation and they live right in your own backyard. We are here to help

assist you to make Boise and all of the Treasure Valley a safe and joyous place

to live. Please feel free to reach out to us for help.

Sincerely yours,

Keith Graves

Vice President, Code 3 to 1