Sheriff Bellotti Speaks on Secure Communities Program in Foxborough

Norfolk County Sheriff Michael Bellotti spoke at the Foxborough Democratic Town Committee meeting Monday night, Oct. 24.

Bellotti, who is in his thirteenth year as Sheriff of Norfolk County, began by explaining his personal connection to Foxborough. He said that he had “married a Foxborough girl” and that his in-laws still live in town.

Bellotti spoke mainly on the Secure Communities initiative, or S-Comm, a program originally developed by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and supported by the Obama Administration.

According to literature put forth by ICE, the Secure Communities program “is improving community safety by transforming the way the federal government cooperates with state and local law enforcement agencies to identify, detain, and remove all criminal aliens held in custody.”

Put simply, S-Comm would require that the fingerprints of criminal aliens from all over the country be shared with ICE electronically.

The Department of Homeland Security plans to implement the program nationwide by 2013.

“When I first heard (about S-Comm), I immediately supported it,” said Sheriff Bellotti, adding that he felt the program was a natural  “progression” of the system local law enforcement currently practices.

“We’re doing it now, we’ve been doing it for years,” Bellotti said, but added that the new system would “change the way things are done” by taking advantage of newer technology.

Bellotti praised the program for the system of categorizing criminals in accordance with the severity and nature of their crime. For instance, those accused of commiting murder, rape, or robbery would be filed at a certain level, while those accused of less serious crimes would be differently distinguished.

Bellotti was not entirely without concern for the program, saying that the specifics of the program were “confusing”, and adding that this type of legislation can often be politically troubling.

According to Democratic Town Committee Chairman Dennis Naughton, Governor Deval Patrick openly opposes S-Comm, concerned that it will lead to “profiling of certain groups” and “the targeting of lower-level offenders identified through parking tickets and traffic tickets”.

Sheriff Bellotti said that his colleagues “avoid profiling” in this type of situation by forwarding to the FBI the fingerprints of everyone who is arrested and booked, but added that it can be difficult to avoid such profiling “at a street level.”