Since its passage in 2010, the Arizona law known as SB 1070 has been considered to be one of the most controversial pieces of legislation in the state, as well as throughout the country. Now, police in Tucson will be utilizing a new database that will help to track certain incidents that relate to SB 1070 policy.

As reported by the Associated Press and posted on ABC 15 in Arizona, this database will “help Tucson police track all encounters in which officers enforce SB 1070.” The database was created after a directive from the mayor and city councillors. They modeled the database after “an agreement between ACLU of Arizona and South Tucson that aims to curb racial profiling.”

Once the database is fully in use, the department will be able to successfully track police encounters where immigration officials become involved. According to Tucson Police Chief Roberto Villaseor, the “hope is that within the next few weeks that form is automated and the process is out to the troops so that we can go ahead and start capturing information and storing it in an automated fashion.”

So, what kind of information will be stored on this database? According to the article, the database will be searchable and will include “the time and reason for the stop or encounter and the time immigration officials were contacted and the nature of their response. It will also include whether the person stopped was taken into custody and how the stop was concluded.”

South Tucson and the ACLU reached an agreement in May 2014 after a notice of claim was filed. A “notice of claim” comes before an actual lawsuit. Terms agreed upon in the lawsuit include requiring police officers to collect data in order to determine whether the officers were stopping people based on racial profiling.

In addition, the ACLU has filed a notice a claim against the city of Tucson related to its policies on enforcing SB 1070. In this matter, the city has not yet responded (as of the date this article was published). This is according to Steve Kilar, a spokesperson for ACLU of Arizona. Kilar went on to say that the “city has not discussed implementing any of the provisions from the South Tucson agreement.” However, he did comment that he thinks “any discussion that they're having to adopt policies that were adopted by South Tucson are positive.”

What are your thoughts on this most recent development with Arizona's SB 1070 law?

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