The Language Let-Down:

Law Enforcement and the ESL Spanish Speaker

Police Departments around the country are interacting and facing more Spanish speakers in their communities

These interactions result in frustrations for members of the community and police

Hispanic community members can become more isolated and less likely to work with police

The Problem

Fewer Spanish speaking domestic violence aggressors are arrested than other minorities or whites

Some in the legal system are concerned that translators may not be effective in translating Miranda warnings and other rights to Spanish and other language speakers

Police can become more authoritarian, impatient, and resistant to resolve and understand conflicts

The Problem

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZSmnaiW34go

Police Intolerance and Impatience

What affect do communication problems and events create for the police and those they serve in Spanish-speaking communities?

How can Police Departments better patrol, interact, protect, and serve the Spanish-speaking members of their communities?

Research Questions

Current research includes news stories, social science journals, and some linguistic research articles

Research comes in the form of anecdotes, quantitative reports, and qualitative interviews

This paper will focus on all of these forms in order to address the question

Question One: What affect do communication problems and events create for the police and those

they serve in Spanish-speaking communities?

Community Policing Theory seems to be the most effective and cutting-edge policing technique to address the communication problems in these communities

Question Two: How can Police Departments better patrol, interact, protect, and serve the Spanish-speaking members of their communities?

As a concept and practice it can be difficult to define

Community Policing depends on decentralization and reorganization of patrol in order to better facilitate two-way communication between citizens and officers. It requires that police be responsive to citizen demands when deciding their local problems and how to set priorities. It also implies a commitment to help communities solve their own problems, lower crime, and improve quality of life (from Community Policing, Chicago Style.)

Community Policing

CP Activities

Community seminars and meetings Neighborhood Watch programs Drug prevention and intervention programs Small neighborhood police substations Organizing youth activities Patrolling on horses and bicycles Publishing newsletters and PSA’s

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6J4zhECqg-4

Other Outreach Efforts

Other Outreach Efforts Spanish Translators-

volunteers, bilingual officers, and technological devices

Spanish Language Courses for officers and dispatchers

Reinventing the police department can be difficult and met with high levels of resistance, but other methods of policing are not resulting in lower crime, better outcomes, or improved community communications between citizens and officers

Small and under-resourced departments must continue to look for improvements in policing largely Spanish-speaking segments of their communities

Community Policing theory seems to impact and resolve issues and communication problems the most effectively

Research Implications