Dan Genz, The Examiner
2008-03-06 08:00:00.0
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WASHINGTON -

Prince William County supervisors are split over whether to fund the most expensive piece of their crackdown on illegal immigrants next year in the face of a $51 million deficit.

Police Chief Charlie Deane has said the $3.1 million program to install cameras in all 250 to 270 vehicles would protect officers against accusations of racial profiling.

“The cameras will be available as an aid to document what we’ve done and who said what,” Deane said, as the county prepares for expected civil rights lawsuits. “I don’t have any doubt there will be allegations of racial profiling.”

However, the cameras — which Deane opposed for years before illegal immigration enforcement because he said they were not necessary — nearly doubled the first-year cost of the illegal immigration policy from $3.3 million to $6.4 million.

County Chairman Corey Stewart said Tuesday he wants to eliminate the cameras from the budget, saying that if the policy can start without cameras, the county can wait for other funding, such as grant applications, before buying the units.

Officers were directed Monday to begin checking the legal status of suspected illegal immigrants questioned for traffic violations and minor crimes.

With Stewart and other supervisors trying to trim about $25 million from County Executive Craig Gerhart’s $924 million proposed budget to reduce a potential tax increase, the camera plan has become a key target.

“Let’s let the federal government pay for these cameras, instead of the taxpayers,” said Trent Barton, a Haymarket resident who addressed the board Tuesday.

But Supervisor Maureen Caddigan, R-Dumfries, said if supervisors don’t fund the cameras, they’re not paying for the entire cost of the illegal immigration policy.

“This board did say … that we want to fully fund it,” Caddigan said. “We will fund what the chief needs.”

dgenz@dcexaminer.com