AMERICAN POLICE BEAT: SEPTEMBER 2017 3 Order your own MONTHLY subscription today. Call 1-800-234-0056 or go to www.APBweb.com American Police Beat (ISSN 1082-653X; USPS #24948), also hereafter referred to as “APB,” is published twelve times a year for $12 per year, $20 for two years or $26 for three years. APB is published by APB International, 505 8th Avenue, Ste 1004, New York, NY 10018. Periodicals Postage Paid at New York, NY and Additional Mailing Offices. Telephone: 800-234-0056. Subscriptions: info@apbweb. com. Website: www.apbweb.com. POSTMASTER: send address changes to American Police Beat, 505 8th Avenue, Ste 1004, New York, NY 10018. Thousands of law enforcement officers and neighborhood residents lined up along the Grand Concourse for the funeral of police officer Miosotis Familia in the Bronx, New York City. Here are two kids who donned police uniforms to mark the somber occasion. (Photo by Andrew Lichtenstein/ Corbis via Getty Images) Court’s decision T he Massachusetts State Supreme Court has ruled t h a t o f f i c e r s working in the courts in the Bay State do not have the authority to arrest someone suspected of be- ing in the U.S. illegally if that person is not facing criminal charges. Like most of this immi- gration stuff, it’s compli- cated. The court’s opinion ap- plied specifically to offi- cers who provide security in state courthouses. But the ruling strongly suggests that no police officer in Massachusetts has the legal standing to comply with “detainer requests” from the feds. According to the jus- tices, there is no state law that provides “authority for Massachusetts court officers to arrest and hold an individual solely on the basis of a federal civil immigration detainer be- yond the time that indi- vidual would otherwise be entitled to a release from state custody.” “Conspicuously absent from our common law is any authority (in the absence of a statute) for police officers to arrest generally for civil matters, let alone authority to arrest specifically for federal civil immigration matters,” the court wrote. A spokesman for U.S. Immigration and Cus- toms Enforcement did not respond to a request for comment from report- ers with McClatchy News Service. The president of the Massachusetts Major City Chiefs of Police Asso- ciation says the ruling is hugely significant. Chelsea, Massachusetts Police Chief Brian Kyes says even undocumented immigrants charged with a crime will have to be re- leased after paying bail. Ruling says agencies have no legal standing to comply with detainer requests from feds