By Tony Plohetski
The Austin American-Statesman
SALTILLO, Mexico — Coahuila state police officer Juan Antonio Barrios remembers standing outside the motel along the U.S.-Mexico border waiting to make his move, the voices of Austin police instructors flashing through his mind.
“Go in low with a cover person.” “Scan the room.” “Keep your back to the wall.”
Mexican police had chosen Barrios, an officer for nine years, to arrest Colton Pityonak after Pitonyak was accused of killing and mutilating former University of Texas student Jennifer Cave and fleeing to Mexico in August 2005.
Austin police had trained Barrios and other Mexican officers a few months earlier in how to safely enter homes and other buildings where suspects may be hiding and arrest them.
Within hours, Barrios had handcuffed Pitonyak and handed him over to U.S. officials. Pitonyak was charged in Austin with Cave’s murder and was convicted last year.
For nearly two years, Austin police officers have crossed the border into Mexico, traveling to the Coahuila state capital, Saltillo, to teach police officers motorcycle driving, SWAT tactics and how to conduct internal affairs investigations, raising the skills of officers in a nation with historically ill-trained and sometimes corrupt law enforcement and building good will in the process.
Officials on both side of the border say Pitonyak’s arrest shows the benefit for such training to Mexican police.
But Austin police also benefit: Coahuila state police have taught Spanish immersion and cultural skills to dozens of Austin officers in the past two years.
“That’s a big selling point,” said Austin police officer Joe Munoz, who coordinates the program. “We are in the customer-service business, and it just makes sense for us to get as many officers immersed as we can.”
On a recent trip, nearly a dozen Austin police officers learned how to ask questions such as “What is your name?” and “How many drinks have you had?” during all-day training sessions.
Officer Steve Krippner, who patrols in Northeast Austin and had traditionally spoken enough Spanish to get by, said he generally responds to a call four to eight times a week in which he wishes he could speak Spanish better. They include anything from drunken driving stops and domestic violence calls to assault cases in which he may need to get suspect descriptions from Spanish-speaking victims.
“An aggravated robbery with the wrong description doesn’t do anybody any good,” Krippner said. Language instructor Carlos Melgoza, hired by the state police, said he tries to teach students enough Spanish during the week so they can freely converse on the job.
“Little by little, they discover there is a formula to every case,” Melgoza said. “At the end of this week, they’ll be able to do interviews and investigations with people who don’t speak English.”
Barrios’ work to arrest Pitonyak at the Casa Blanca motel in Piedras Negras made him something of a celebrity throughout the state police agency.
It also led to a promotion as a special aide to the chief. He said he was happy he could take what he learned and use it to help Austin.
“My heart was satisfied,” he said. “I am very thankful” for the training.
Copyright 2007 The Austin American-Statesman