Thread: Lack of Spanish speakers problem for Mobile, Baldwin police

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Article published Jul 30, 2006

Lack of Spanish speakers problem for Mobile, Baldwin police

By NADIA M. TAYLOR
Press-Register
Mobile Police Officer Steve Rocha didn't learn English until he was 6 years old, because his parents, who immigrated from Mexico to Mississippi, wanted to make sure he never forgot his heritage.

Now, decades later, Rocha is putting his Spanish skills to use helping Latino families and law enforcement agents in Mobile understand each other better.

Rocha, a nine-year veteran of the Police Department, is one of three Spanish-speaking officers the department calls on for translations. When officers encounter a suspect or a witness who can speak only Spanish, Rocha is usually the person they call.

While some law enforcement officials said the Hispanic population is growing in Mobile and Baldwin counties, the number of Spanish-speaking officers at several of the major local law enforcement agencies is not - affecting not only day-to-day communication but partnerships between the Latino community and law enforcement.

Top local law enforcement officials said the devastation of Hurricane Katrina, which destroyed much of the Gulf Coast last year, and the availability of employment, particularly construction jobs, has brought a huge wave of Spanish-speaking immigrants to the Mobile Bay region.

"Katrina has changed the complexion of a lot of things," said Mobile police Chief Phillip Garrett. "I think we've picked up a lot of people that either now live in Mobile or work here, and the importance of having someone that speaks Spanish is greater now than even a year ago. ... The need is probably going to be even greater in the future."

The Mobile County Sheriff's Office has two Spanish-speaking officers who can translate fluently, while at the Baldwin County Sheriff's Office - where one top official called the language barrier a priority concern - there is only one Spanish translator, according to authorities at those departments.

The Alabama Department of Safety's State Trooper division has no Spanish speakers at its Mobile post, which covers Mobile, Baldwin, Washington, Clarke and Choctaw counties, a trooper spokesman said.

Determining exactly how many legal or illegal immigrants are in Mobile and Baldwin counties is difficult.

The Pew Hispanic Center in Washington estimated that about 11 million illegal aliens were in the United States in 2005. The center said that between 30,000 and 50,000 undocumented immigrants were in Alabama, but the estimate did not break down the numbers by region or county

In the 2000 Census, Mobile County had 4,887 residents who identified themselves as Hispanic or Latino, or 1.2 percent of the total population estimated at 399,843.

Baldwin County had 2,466 Hispanic or Latino residents. That number was 1.8 percent of a total population of 140,415.

A 2005 estimate by the U.S. Census Bureau did not list Hispanic population projections for Mobile and Baldwin counties, though the overall population in both counties increased significantly.

Hernn Prado, founder of the Alabama Latin American Association, said the percentage of Spanish-speaking officers in Alabama does not accurately represent the percentage of Spanish-speakers in the state.

The Hispanic population is around 6 percent to 9 percent of Alabama's total population, Prado said, and having one or two bilingual officers in agencies is just not enough, he said. It's a problem not only in southwest Alabama, but also in departments across the state, Prado said.

"It will get worse if the trend of immigration growth continues increasing," he said.

The increase in non-English-speaking Mobilians is something Rocha has noticed because of the frequency in which he gets called out to translate, he said.

"We've always had a small Hispanic community in Mobile," Rocha said. "Since the hurricane, of course, there's been a big influx, basically because of construction. Am I seeing more calls? Yeah, in the last few years, because of the influx of the population and the rate with which the Hispanic community has grown."

Rocha, who gets called out to translate in addition to working his regular patrol shift, said in the past six months, he's been called out at least once a week for translation purposes. He was particularly in need over the Fourth of July holiday weekend, when Mobile police set up four nights of road blocks throughout the city.

"They encountered quite a few non-English speakers, and I got called out to quite a few (checkpoints)," Rocha said.

Most of the time, Rocha said, he is called to respond to violent crime scenes or speaks to suspects and witnesses connected to some sort of violent crime.

"Just in the last few months when I've been called out, it's been usually party gatherings," Rocha said. "A group gets together and they have a little too much to drink, and then a fight breaks out, and then somebody gets cut or shot, and usually they'll call me to the scene to interview witnesses," he said.

Being one of the only translators in the department can mean long hours and interrupted personal time, Rocha said.

"It would also help to have more Spanish-speaking officers just to build that rapport with the Hispanic community - because it's here, and it's not going anywhere," Rocha said.

In Baldwin County, dealing with the increase in non-English speakers is one of the biggest problems the Sheriff's Office is having, said spokesman Lt. John Murphy.

"Spanish is the biggest issue we have right now because of the influx of the Hispanic community," Murphy said. "It's our largest (minority) population. ... We haven't seen that it's slowing down, either."

Murphy said some of the deputies have taken "survival Spanish" classes, but "it's not going to get you through an interview and an interrogation," he said.

Most of the classes the deputies attend are only a week or two long and focus on officer safety, rather than fluency or even conversational competency, Murphy said.

Like the other agencies, Murphy said, the Baldwin County Sheriff's Office is interested in hiring more bilingual recruits. Still, no bonus or added incentive is offered for bilingual capabilities at the Baldwin or Mobile county sheriff's offices, the Mobile Police Department or the Alabama State Troopers.

Pay incentives and bonuses for bilingual officers are implemented in dozens of police departments around the country, especially in big cities and cities with large Hispanic populations. The Houston Police Department, for example, offers an extra $1,800 a year to officers who speak Spanish, according to that department.

"The topic (of incentives) has recently come up," Murphy said, "And there's talk about implementing a bonus, but it all comes down to budgetary issues."

Unlike Baldwin County, Mobile County is not at all exploring the bilingual incentive as a recruiting tool, said sheriff spokesman Chad Tucker.

"We've not seen the need to do that," Tucker said. "It's not something that's been talked about. We have (translation) situations arise, but we're able to deal with it."

Alabama State Trooper spokesman Joe Piggott said of the translation problems his agency encounters, "Right now it's sort of hit or miss. If I stop someone who only speaks Spanish, I try to get the Border Patrol out there."

If no border patrol agent is available, Piggott said, the troopers do have some Spanish sentences available to them in their ticket books.

"We have some survival Spanish phrases," Piggott said. "'Show me your license,' stuff like that. We're usually not totally helpless. If all else falls through you can look in your ticket book and have some basic phrases, but it does make it tougher in the interrogation. There are some things you want to ask that just aren't in the book."

Piggott said that like other agencies, the Department of Public Safety has sent some of the Mobile post troopers to a "Spanish for uniformed officers" class, which expands on the "cheat sheet" phrases.

Translation issues are "not the absolute biggest problem that we have," Piggott said. "We can get by with the cheat sheet, but definitely if we had someone that could speak Spanish it would be a big benefit."

More bilingual officers would not only benefit immediate communication, officials said, but future criminal investigations as well.

"Police would be able to develop a better community policing," said Prado, the Alabama Latin American Association founder. "The Hispanic community would build more trust in law enforcement, and investigation of crime will be simpler."

Rocha agreed.

"You don't know how hard it is to go into the Hispanic community and get some of them to talk to you," Rocha said. "Many of them come from these different Latin countries where there is police corruption, and they don't trust police.

"We're in a position in the United States to change that," Rocha said. "It's time to start."

"You don't know how hard it is to go into the Hispanic community and get some of them to talk to you," Rocha said. "Many of them come from these different Latin countries where there is police corruption, and they don't trust police.

Could it simply be that some of them don't want to talk with police because they're illegal aliens?

Originally Posted by had_enuf

"You don't know how hard it is to go into the Hispanic community and get some of them to talk to you," Rocha said. "Many of them come from these different Latin countries where there is police corruption, and they don't trust police.

Could it simply be that some of them don't want to talk with police because they're illegal aliens?

Ya think

had_enuf - Are these people really that naive? Or is it stupid? Or is it gullible?

LEARN ENGLISH FOLKS and you'll start to figure it out.

You don't know how hard it is to go into the Hispanic community and get some of them to talk to you," Rocha said. "Many of them come from these different Latin countries where there is police corruption, and they don't trust police.

Well said Chey and Hadenuf,

They don't want to talk to the police because they are afraid of being discovered here illeglly, and they may have to go back to those countries with police corruption.
This sounds very apathetic of me to say, but I'm glad to see the fear of deportation being brought back to life in the minds of illegals.

You all have had it too easy for too long, but not anymore. We the People have had enough. Time to take matters into our own hands. It is our responsibility as per the Declaration of Independance.

If they weren't illegals they could speak English.

Dixie