By Perla Trevizo
Chattanooga Times Free Press
Napoleon Hernandez was standing outside his Eastside home last weekend when two men approached him and beat him up. He doesn’t remember what happened after he fell down while they punched and kicked him. When police officers arrived, he couldn’t fully explain what had happened in his limited English.
As the Chattanooga area becomes home to more people who don’t speak English, or don’t speak it well, law enforcement officials are adapting. Some law enforcement agencies offer Spanish classes to their officers, while others have bilingual personnel. But that isn’t always enough.
“What we have to do is be very cognizant of the fact that the information we receive from people [who call 911], we have to get quick and as accurate as possible,” said director of the Hamilton County 911 district.
The district contracts with an interpretation service that quickly connects callers to interpreters over the phone, but it slows things down in situations where time often is critical.
“A reality you have to deal with is that, whenever you have to bring somebody else into the conversation, the flow of information is not as fast as we would like it,” he said. “But it’s just something we have to deal with.”
In Dalton, Ga., where about half the population is Hispanic, the police department has five officers who are fluent in Spanish and a certified translator assigned to the criminal investigation unit, said Bruce Frazier, the department’s spokesman.
“Our fluent officers are assigned across the various shifts so we most always have a fluent speaker on duty,” he wrote in an e-mail.
Officers also are required to take basic Spanish classes, which are held in-house, he added.
“Each officer knows enough Spanish to handle most law enforcement situations,” Frazier said.
Hernandez’s limited English helped him communicate with the officers after he was attacked, but he said others don’t call police because of the language barrier.
“There are people who get robbed and they don’t say anything; they stay quiet,” he said in Spanish a few days after the beating. “Many times they get robbed because it is known that many [Hispanic immigrants] are afraid to call the police.”
Chattanooga’s police department, which has 410 sworn personnel and 104 civilians, has about 16 officers and civilians who speak a language other than English. Twelve speak Spanish, two use sign language, one speaks Arabic and Kurdish and one speaks Bosnian, Croatian and Serbian, spokeswoman Officer Rebecca Royval said.
Although Spanish continues to be the language most often required, the last three years has seen a growing demand for other languages, said Stuermer.
Since May, the Hamilton County 911 district has used the interpretation service three times for Ukranian and one time for German, compared to 168 times for Spanish, he said.
“As we become a country that has more and more folks who speak other languages, we have to be sensitive to try to assist them,” as well as offer more opportunities for them to learn English, said Hamilton County Sheriff Jim Hammond.
“I lived a number of years abroad where English was the secondary language ... and it’s confusing. It can be intimidating,” he said.
Copyright 2010 Chattanooga Publishing Company