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Barrier hinders police work
Demographic shift creates language gap

Karina Ioffee
Record Staff Writer
Published Saturday, Nov 26, 2005

STOCKTON -- Communication froze in the chaos that ensued after Manuel Mondragon was shot on an east Stockton street in September.

Amid the ambulance sirens, deputies who issued commands in English and medical workers loading the wounded man on a stretcher, Samuel Mondragon, the victim's brother, was unable to explain what happened because he speaks only Spanish.

Eventually, a bilingual girl served as an intermediary between deputies and residents. It was about a half-hour later that a Spanish-speaking detective arrived on scene, said Samuel Mondragon, 23.

"That day, there was no one who we could turn to," said the immigrant from Mexico. "They tell you something, but you don't understand anything. You're completely lost." Manuel Mondragon later died.

The past decade has witnessed a population boom in San Joaquin County led by Asians and Latinos who combined make up just under half of the total population. The county's shifting demographic has caught law enforcement off guard as it struggles to respond to increasing calls from those who do not speak English, say community leaders and others from those ethnic groups.

On any given day, police officers, deputies and dispatchers make dozens of requests for translation in the field. Sometimes a bilingual officer or sergeant arrives within minutes; sometimes, no one is available.

When 28-year-old Barvaro "Tony" Sandoval was stabbed at a party in October, it took an ambulance nearly 15 minutes to reach the Charter Way home because none of the more than 50 guests spoke enough English to help dispatchers once they dialed 911.

"They do need more people who speak Spanish in the city," said Veronica Vargas, who was at the house when Sandoval was fatally stabbed. "Officers pull people over all the time, but they drivers can't communicate until a Spanish-speaking person arrives. They're stuck."

Neither the Stockton Police Department nor the San Joaquin County Sheriff's Office say they keep data on how many officers and deputies are bilingual. Officials from both agencies, however, say they frequently recruit in ethnic communities and pay more to those who sign up to use foreign language skills in the field.

Police also rely on an outside service they dial into when they get a call from someone who doesn't speak English.

"We haven't had a problem with interpretation up to this point," said Pete Smith, a spokesman for the Stockton Police Department. "We feel that we are operating at an acceptable rate."

This spring, police began a campaign urging farmer workers who were victims of robberies to report the crimes. While admirable, the effort isn't effective because there are too few community service and patrol officers who can communicate with the people they want to help, said Luis Magaña of the American Friends Service Committee's Project Voice.

"It's ironic that they are doing this campaign, because there isn't anyone there to take the calls in Spanish when they call," he said. "People are still not getting the help they need."

Police Chief Mark Herder did not return repeated calls for comment this week. Mayor Ed Chavez, a former Stockton police chief who speaks Spanish, said the Police Department could do more to recruit minority officers as well as those who are bilingual.

"The goal is a department that reflects the ethnic makeup of the community, and we are not there yet," Chavez said, noting other police departments are struggling with the same issues.

Robert Khoonsvirong, executive director of the Lao Khmu Association, said many recent Asian immigrants and other Asians who don't speak English are reluctant to call police because they mistrust authorities, based on experiences in their home countries. The association helps immigrants from Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam secure housing, food and other necessities.

"Lots of situations go unreported, like domestic violence or a minor incident," said Khoonsvirong, who added he knows of one detective who speaks Cambodian and two community service officers who speak Laotian and Hmong.

"We haven't had problems recently, but it's a time bomb" waiting to happen, he said.

But what some call a dire need, others say is misdirected blame. The onus, they said, is on non-English speakers to learn the language of the country they live in.

They point to the Nov. 12 shooting death of Gustavo Peña Izaguirre, a 26-year-old man from Mexico killed by police outside of Cesar Chavez High School and say his death could have been avoided if Peña spoke English.


"It doesn't matter what ethnicity you are. If you come to this country to pursue the American dream and you can't read, write or comprehend English, you have no right to be here or earn American dollars," said Janet Flores, a Stockton resident.

"I feel bad for the man, but it's not our responsibility to learn their language," she said.

Meanwhile, there are attempts to bridge the gap. Earlier this year, Spanish-language courses focusing on medical terminology and designed for paramedics and other first responders were offered by California Career College. Several years ago, the Stockton office of Kaiser Permanente became the first location with a Spanish-speaking call center.

Still, Magaña and others want law enforcement to reach out more to ethnic communities. They suggest hiring more bilingual staff, sending officers for language training and cultural sensitivity to Mexico and recruiting volunteers who speak other languages to work the front desk at the police station.

Chavez said the idea has been considered but was ultimately dropped because of a lack of funds.

Khoonsvirong said this community problem affects everyone.

"We need to work together to resolve the problem because it affects the quality of life for all of us," he said.