Townspeople must trust their local police.

We need to know local law enforcement uses good judgment.

Dunmore Police Chief Salvatore Marchese came up short on the wisdom beat Wednesday when I called to ask about his department’s role in a recent high-profile arrest in his town. Officers in this Northeastern Pennsylvania borough adjacent to Scranton recently assisted federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents. ICE apprehended an undocumented Honduran immigrant and his 11-year-old daughter.

The man had missed an immigration hearing.

The child embodies pure innocence.

Dunmore Mayor Max Conway has ignored my emailed questions about whether Dunmore officials ever established a written agreement to cooperate with ICE. So I called Marchese and asked, “Do Dunmore police have a written agreement with ICE?”

“No,” the police chief said.

“So why did Dunmore police pick up the sixth grader at her school?”

“We helped facilitate,” Marchese said.

“What does facilitate mean?” I asked.

Marchese said Dunmore police went to the school to pick up the child “as humanely as possible” and reunite her with her father whom ICE had earlier arrested in the borough. He did not offer his definition of “humanely.”

“Did ICE have a warrant for the child?” I asked.

“That was my understanding,” Marchese said, implying he did not actually see a warrant for the child.

I asked Marchese who told him ICE had warrants.

“I don’t want to talk to you right now to be honest,” Marchese said.

 “Why is that?” I asked.

Marchese hung up on me.

I followed up the next day with an email.

“Chief Marchese, right before you hung up on me yesterday during our brief telephone conversation I asked why you said ‘I don’t want to talk to you right now to be honest.’ Why did you fear answering legitimate questions about your role and the role Dunmore police played in seizing a child from her Dunmore elementary school at the request of federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents?

By telling me you “understand” ICE possessed a warrant you imply you did not actually see a warrant for either the child or her father. Why would you allow Dunmore police to snatch a child from her school without making sure officers were acting legally?

Why would you cooperate with ICE in the first place?

I’ll be happy to again give you the opportunity to explain your side of the story on the phone. Or would you prefer a video interview?”

Marchese did not respond to my questions.

Scranton Times-Tribune columnist Chris Kelly had previously reported, “The local officers handled the ugly situation professionally and as quietly and compassionately as possible.”

Kelly failed to tell readers how or even if he confirmed his statement about the Dunmore cops’ purported skills. Pulling a child from the safety of her elementary school to be deported is as far from compassion as the Honduran capital Tegucigalpa is from Dunmore. And, if “professionally and quietly” means the chief of police covering his tracks with bullet-proof silence about what exactly happened when ICE tore into town, Dunmore police need serious additional training.

Why should local cops help federal agents seize defenseless hometown residents in the first place? Some police departments do partner with ICE through formal policies called the 287(g) program run by ICE and the Department of Homeland Security. The best police departments, however, simply refuse to cooperate with ICE. No federal law requires local police to assist ICE. No local police should.

Atlantic Magazine recently reported ICE receives $175 billion, more funding than any law enforcement agency in the United States. ICE eating up local resources costs Dunmore taxpayers money that is increasingly difficult to obtain. Dunmore officials must value hard-working residents who depend on local resources to pay for true public safety and ensure a secure quality of life for themselves and their children.

Will Dunmore parents grow increasingly fearful of sending their children to school? Will Dunmore police continue to do ICE dirty work? Nobody with the power to decide Dunmore police policy is talking publicly. After all the initial public concern elected officials showed over the local ICE arrests, in a little over a week none of them seems willing to even help find out where federal officials banished our lost immigrant child.

When Chief Marchese treats me or any member of the local press the way he did when I asked simple questions, how will he treat any local borough resident bold enough to ask questions about the public service he is well paid to perform?

Marchese misunderstands the heart of his protect and serve mission.

Protecting children is a holy crusade.

Serving unjust masters is surrender.