City Manager Bryan Heck indicated the Immigration Accountability Response Team has focused primarily on three areas: employment, driver’s education and licensing, and housing.
Alarms had been raised by some residents in the summer about the possibility of human trafficking and exploitation by employers. Local officials are working with outside agencies to determine if there is validity to such allegations and, if so, what can be done to address such issues.
“We’ve also formed a great partnership with the Department of Public Safety and Bureau of Motor Vehicles (BMV) in Ohio,” Heck said. “The BMV is working on some educational programming that can be rolled out specifically within our community to help individuals with the driver’s education component.”
Heck said comments from area residents have also prompted officials to look into current policies and procedures and consider making changes.
Area resident Mark Sanders, present at the Tuesday meeting and at many before, had asked in earlier commission meetings why a vehicle could not be seized when the driver is discovered not to have a valid driver’s license. He questioned whether the city policy was consistent with those of other municipalities in the area in regard to seizing and towing vehicles.
As a result, Heck reported, “Our legal team, police and prosecutor’s office are collaborating together to establish better towing procedures and establishing standard protocols for the seizing and towing of vehicles.”
He said officials examined stats from Aug. 1 to Oct. 22 and found 103 vehicles were towed or seized though the Springfield Police Division.
“It is a practice we use,” Heck said. “We can always look at policies and procedures as well as training elements to make sure we are doing the most effective and efficient job.”
Commissioner David Estrop supported Sanders’ suggestion and added a recommendation to also seize the vehicles of those who have had their driver’s licenses suspended.
“They shouldn’t be on the road any more than someone who does not have a license,” he said.
Estrop also said continuity across local governmental agencies would be beneficial and asked the city’s legal staff to explore the possibility of working with other communities to enact uniformity in policy across area municipalities.
“What to me would be the ideal here would be if we had the same ordinance or law in effect county wide,” Estrop said. “It wouldn’t make any difference if someone was stopped in Tremont City, in the city or somewhere in the rural part of the county, everybody would be subject to the same rule regarding no license or suspension of license … If we could all come up with model policies and similar punishments, it would be great.”
He also asked officials to examine resources of the city to enact and enforce such policies to ensure feasibility.
Heck said the work of the group tasked with addressing immigration issues is ongoing.
“A lot of information-gathering continues to go on, but also a lot of progress in terms of implementing some changes for policies and procedures around immigration,” Heck told commissioners.
Commissioners plan to provide reports regularly on activities and progress of the efforts.
About the Author