Thread: Murfreesboro police take Spanish lessons

Sunday, 09/16/07
Murfreesboro police take Spanish lessons

By BRANDON PUTTBRESE
Gannett Tennessee

MURFREESBORO — Murfreesboro police want to improve how they serve Hispanic residents by overcoming the current language barrier.

The city's Hispanic population has grown 145 percent since 2000, according to police officials.

"Communication is the key to serving all the people in our city,'' said Murfreesboro police Lt. Steve Teeters. "It's our job to provide service and, to do that adequately, we must have a basic understanding of Spanish.''

The department is determined to train all of its employees to speak some Spanish by 2008, Teeters said.

Recently, Knoxville Sgt. Savannah Ayub, a course instructor with the Tennessee Law Enforcement Innovation Center, spent some time teaching Spanish to 30 Murfreesboro officers, dispatchers and others who encounter Spanish-speaking residents on a daily basis.

"Every day I'm on duty there's a need for Spanish interpreters,'' Ayub said. "It's important for an officer to learn to communicate, even if it is on basic level. Language breaks down barriers.''

The goal is for Murfreesboro police to be able to recite and understand short phrases in Spanish for simple questioning and report information.

Patrol supervisor Sgt. Don Fanning, a student in the class, said the training is crucial.

"It's hard to be effective when you can't communicate,'' Fanning said, adding that he will likely use the language skills he learned in the three-day crash course every day.

Classes may save lives

Every second counts for officers responding to an emergency, and cutting out the call to an interpreter could save lives and solve more crimes, he added.

Officials hope the new training will alleviate the strain put on the department's four Spanish-speaking officers, who, in the past, have been routinely called upon to translate during emergency calls.

Teeters said it's too soon to know whether the four summer and fall classes have helped reduce the department's dependency on these officers, but he is hopeful.

Other police officials in Rutherford County also have recognized the need to expand their language skills.

In Smyrna, similar training, started in January, has made a big difference, said Chief Kevin Arnold.

The language barrier had got so bad that the Smyrna Police Department purchased cell phones that victims and suspects used to call an interpreter or one of the department's 10 officers who speak Spanish.

"The classes have led to a break for our fluent speakers and taken some of the burden off them,'' Arnold said. But the bilingual staffers are still an integral part of operations.

http://www.tennessean.com/apps/pbcs.dll ... /1017/NEWS

What a bunch of clowns. They are determined, all of a sudden, to communicate with illegals (bendover) but as far as providing protection for U.S. citizens they are completely worthless.