"Law Enforcement Spanish"
Prince George's County police adapt to growing Latino population
Reported and produced by Shauna Stuart
Prince George’s County, Maryland, just outside of Washington, D.C., has a rapidly growing immigrant community. While the county is still predominantly African American, Latinos make up close to one-third of the population, especially in busy Langley Park. The growing population means growing challenges for law enforcement. With few Spanish-speaking officers on the force, the Prince George’s County police are having trouble solving crimes in the Latino community. As Prince George’s County changes, its police force must change as well.
In Maryland's growing Prince George's County, many Latinos do not speak fluent English.
Language issues have been an especially critical problem in Langley Park, a largely Latino neighborhood. Langley Park is home to about 20,000 people, two-thirds of whom speak Spanish.
In addition to the language barrier, there is also a fear of police in Latino community.
University of Maryland professor Bill Hanna runs the advocacy group Action Langley Park. He says many recent Latino immigrants come from countries where the police often threatened the citizens instead of helping them.
"Back in the home country, the person with the uniform on who would knock on the door wasn't there to protect you. It might well be a person who was going to take your boy and force him into the army or militia or take the girl and rape her or make her a sex slave," Hanna said.
"So the official who comes to the door is not necessarily one who's looked forward to."
He said some immigrants are also here illegally and are afraid of being deported if approached by police.
Police Efforts
Prince George's County State's attorney Glenn Ivey says one way for the police force to overcome the language barrier is for officers to learn more Spanish. The department has added more Spanish-speaking officers in the last year. Now they make up seven percent of the force. Ivey also says he considers Spanish skills when looking at new applicants.
"There's been an improvement, but I think we need to hire dozens of officers who speak Spanish so we can keep pace to some extent with the growth in the community," Ivey said.
The Hispanic Liaison Unit
In the meantime, the police try to bridge the language barrier in Langley Park by using a police substation called the Hispanic Liaison Unit, where residents can get help with all kinds of issues, from minor traffic violations to theft reports.
Carlos Moretta is the director of the unit, and provides a number of services from the substation, including a nightly English language class.
"There are a lot of things that Hispanics can sometimes get in trouble for not knowing certain things they need to know, [like] how the police work," Moretta said. "So it's important for them to kind of have a heads up as of what to expect."
Latinos in the community have easy access to Moretta. Since he's not a police officer and not in uniform, many residents do not find him threatening.
While the substation is helpful to both police and Latino residents, it is the only such substation in all of Prince George's county.
Building more substations would not replace the need for more Spanish speaking officers, but it would be a big help.
"Law Enforcement Spanish"
While the Latino residents of Prince George's county wait for the police force to build more police substations and hire more Spanish speaking officers, one solution to the problem may be requiring officers to learn Spanish buzzwords, or what Ivey refers to as "law enforcement Spanish."
"If we could get to a point where we have sort of basic ability or some level of communication, I think that would be helpful. Like, 'gun,' for example, might be a word that every police officer knows the Spanish translation for," Ivey said.
Production assistance from Elizabeth Anderson.
