Seen in the Press
'Just the facts' — but in Spanish
'Police in suburbs get language lessons to serve immigrants
Meggen Linsay, Pioneer Press Sunday, April 23, 2006
Apple Valley police officer Mike Tietz knows his Spanish is far from fluent. But it's been enough to help him on the street.
"Escribe aquí, por favor," he told the driver of a van with missing vehicle tabs he pulled over during a recent patrol shift. The man dutifully wrote his name down, and he and three Hispanic passengers relaxed visibly as Tietz told them he spoke at least "pequeño" Spanish.
"I was able to articulate what I needed," the officer said when he came back to his squad car.
He couldn't have done that last year. In March, Tietz was one of 12 officers on the Apple Valley police force to complete a three-month Spanish language course that was tailored for patrol officers. The department spent $3,400 on the course and in personnel hours in an effort to bolster its rapport with the city's emergent Hispanic community.
The in-house, customized program appears to be the first of its kind in the east metro and is indicative of a growing trend among law enforcement agencies. As more Hispanic residents migrate to suburbs, police there are struggling to reach members of the new communities.
Apple Valley's two-hour weekly classes, designed by Dakota County Technical College teacher Harold Torrence, taught the officers occupational Spanish and a cultural framework to help better understand the community.
"It was very dynamic," Torrence said. "They'd learn something one night in class and the following day they are out there using it."
Torrence, a native of Venezuela, didn't teach his class grammar or verb conjugation; instead, he focused on role-playing, repetition and pronunciation.
"A lot of departments are struggling with this. It's hard to fill the gap between officers who are fluent and ones who know one or two phrases," said Lakeville Police Chief Steve Strachan. "I think this is a great idea."
Strachan plans to send at least two officers to Torrence's next class.
Apple Valley's Hispanic residents made up just 2 percent of its population at the time of the 2000 census, though police Sgt. John Bermel thinks the percentage has increased since then. One reason is booming construction in the developing suburb, bringing Hispanic workers into the city, he said.
In addition to handling a host of situations more easily, the department's effort to learn the language has helped build trust among wary community members, he said.
FACES LIGHT UP
'You need to be able to communicate," he said. "And people do appreciate the effort. Their faces really light up when we use their language, even if it's just a few words or we don't say something quite right."
Officers learned more than 500 Spanish phrases to assist them in everything from releasing impounded cars to interviewing robbery victims.
Tietz, who has been with the Apple Valley force almost three years, keeps his class manual in his car for handy reference. He figures he uses his new skills probably once a week.
But one incident — a domestic assault — sticks with him. While still enrolled in training classes, he was able to speak with the victim to figure out who hit her and where the suspect was and to have him arrested.
"After you try to learn a language, it forces you to really listen. My ears hurt almost, I'm so intent on listening," Tietz said. "We can control a scene and take care of things no matter what the language being spoken, but it's better for everyone when we can pick up a few key words."
Apple Valley police Capt. Jon Rechtzigel formulated the idea after the city participated in an exchange program last summer with Worthington, Minn., where the Swift & Co. packing plant has an almost entirely Hispanic work force. In addition, officer Sean McKnight, who focuses his patrol on the heavily Hispanic neighborhood of the Cedar Knolls mobile home park, helped persuade his bosses to bring in training.
"I saw all of the Spanish-speaking officers in Worthington and it all just kind of connected for us," Rechtzigel said. "It was just the right thing to do."
AN EXPANDING NEED
Minneapolis and St. Paul — whose combined Hispanic population of more than 50,000 is larger than Apple Valley's population of 46,000 — long have trained officers in foreign languages because of their larger immigrant populations. Some 80 of St. Paul's 560 officers are fluent in a second language and Minneapolis runs a 10-week language program created by St. Mary's University three times annually.
In the suburbs, the need for bilingual officers has increased in the past five years, said police chiefs in the cities with the fastest-growing Hispanic populations. Although current levels of training vary, most public safety leaders agreed they must step up their efforts.
All the departments use AT&T's language line, which allows police to immediately reach a professional interpreter by phone 24 hours daily. Many also send officers to the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension's three-day "Street Survival" Spanish program.
"We decided we needed to do more," Richfield Public Safety Director Dan Scott said. A dozen police officers there recently finished the St. Mary's program and he plans to take the course when it's offered later in the spring.
BETTER PUBLIC SERVANTS
Scott realized there was a need for a better connection with the Hispanic community after the City Council in 2004 considered passing an ordinance, similar to Minneapolis' and St. Paul's, that enforces a separation between the police and federal immigration officials.
"So we looked at the possibility then of trying to build better relationships," he said. "There were false ideas lingering in the community about the police which we needed to address.
"We wanted to look at becoming better public servants, if you will."
Between the Mall of America and the city's 7,000 hotel rooms, Bloomington's hospitality industry draws many Hispanic workers, Police Chief John Laux said.
"If you are going to provide good public service, you have to be willing to adapt," Laux said.
His department is in the process of bringing in a Spanish teacher from the public school system to teach a comprehensive class for officers this fall.
Eagan also is looking at the Dakota County Technical School program, Chief Kent Therkelsen said, but he also noted the need to recruit bilingual police officers.
"It's very helpful for anyone considering a career in law enforcement now to know two languages," he said.
Meggen Lindsay can be reached at mlindsay@pioneerpress.com or 651-228-5260.