More than two dozen Immigration and Customs Enforcement vehicles on the ground in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area “currently lack the necessary emergency lights and sirens” required to be “compliant with law enforcement requirements,” according to a contract justification published in a federal register on Tuesday.
The document justifies ICE paying Whelen Engineering Company, a Connecticut-based firm specializing in “emergency warning and lighting technology,” $47,330.49 for 31 “ATLAS1” kits—seemingly a typo of ATLAS, the name of the product sold by Whelen—which the company’s website describes as an “Adaptable Travel Light and Siren Kit.” The document explains that the ATLAS Kits would “allow vehicles to be immediately operational and compliant with law enforcement requirements to support the current surge operation” out of Homeland Security Investigations (HSI)’s St. Paul office, which conducts operations in Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota.
“These vehicles were deployed prior to being permanently retrofitted and currently lack the necessary emergency lights and sirens required for operational use,” the document says.
The document also says that because of the “the time-sensitive nature of the mission” that HSI agents are conducting, having to wait for “permanent retrofitting” the agency vehicles with lights and sirens “would negatively impact operational readiness, law enforcement officer safety, and public safety.”
HSI’s most recent public handbook for agents conducting “emergency driving”—defined as driving during “official duties,” like low- or high-risk pursuits, that may require breaking speed limits or violating certain traffic laws—appears to have been published in 2012. It says that any HSI vehicles without lights and sirens “may not be used” in emergency driving, unless the officer “is conducting surveillance or is responding to an event that may adversely impact or threaten life, health, or property or requires an immediate law enforcement response.”
The handbook adds that if an HSI officer is emergency driving but their vehicle does not have lights or sirens, they “must terminate” their participation in a law enforcement operation, and an officer from another law enforcement agency that does have lights and sirens should take over. This HSI officer ”may continue to assist in a backup role, if necessary.”
The handbook does not specify the exact number or location of lights that have to be on an emergency vehicle, but it says that officers are responsible for reviewing any state statutes for emergency lights and sirens where they operate. Minnesota state law requires law enforcement and emergency drivers to “sound an audible signal by siren” and have at least one red light on the front of the vehicle, among other stipulations.
ICE did not immediately respond to WIRED’s request for comment.
According to the listing for the ATLAS Kit on Whelen’s website, the kit includes several items that are also sold separately by the company, including lightheads and lightbars, as well as a siren amplifier and speaker. The kit comes in a portable case resembling a wheeled suitcase and a small device with a microphone and buttons for controlling the other items in the kit. Whelen describes ATLAS as being “designed for quick installation” for any vehicle, regardless of make or model” and ideal for “on-the-go law enforcement.”
The listing comes six days after ICE officer Jonathan Ross fatally shot 37-year-old Renee Nicole Good in her car in Minneapolis, sparking massive protests and an influx of right-wing influencers trying to capitalize on the chaos. After Department of Homeland Security secretary Kristi Noem announced that hundreds of additional ICE officers would join the 2,000 already in the Minneapolis area, the State of Minnesota and the cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul filed a federal lawsuit against DHS and its top officials, asking the judge to halt the federal immigration enforcement operation underway in the state.
