Opportunity for Careers in Law Enforcement Lure 5,000 Latinos to Job Fair

Yolanda Berumen, a 20-year-old mother of two, would like to save lives, arrest drug pushers and enforce child car-seat laws by becoming one of only a handful of Latina California Highway Patrol officers.

A fluent Spanish speaker, Berumen believes she can help bridge the communication gap between officers and the Latino population.

“My attitude is, if I can speak Spanish and help somebody in an accident or a female getting raped, then I’m doing something for myself, as well as the city,” said Berumen, now a cardiac technician at an Alhambra hospital.

Louis Fraijo, a 33-year-old driver who travels about 400 miles daily, has been considering a career change for the last six months. He is suddenly impatient.

“I want to get into something A-S-A-P,” he said, not only to escape his unfulfilling job but because many agencies do not hire officers over 35. He plans to apply to about 15 different law enforcement agencies “until I pass or until I get a good call.”

Although he must still finish high school and hopes to attend college, 16-year-old Robert Valdez said he is interested in finding out what careers are available in law enforcement.

Law Enforcement Job Fair

“I’m just starting to think about what I want to do,” said the Garfield High School junior.

Berumen, Fraijo and Valdez were among 5,000 people who attended the First Annual Hispanic Law Enforcement Career Expo at East Los Angeles College on Saturday. The job fair was organized by the Los Angeles Police Department, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, California Highway Patrol and the California Department of Corrections in an effort to increase the number of Latino law enforcement officers.

In addition, 28 other law enforcement agencies--including several small city police departments, the Los Angeles City Fire Department, U.S. Customs and the Drug Enforcement Administration--had set up job booths.

Several Southland law enforcement agencies have acknowledged the need for more Latino officers to reflect the growing numbers of Latinos in the work force, but the LAPD was required to increase the number of minorities on its staff by a 1981 consent decree.

Of the 7,500 officers in the LAPD, 17% are Latino, Officer George Gascon said. The department’s objective is to increase that figure to 30%. Of the 6,592 Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies, an estimated 12.7% are Latino, Deputy Fidel Gonzales said. And Latinos compose 9.7% of the more than 5,000 CHP officers.

“Qualified Hispanics are definitely out there, we see them in the community all the time,” said CHP officer and recruitment coordinator Alex Gonzalez. “It’s just a matter of getting them in the ‘protect and serve’ career. . . . “

300 Take LAPD Exam

Although the job fair was targeted at Latinos, most of the agencies emphasized that anyone interested in a law enforcement career--regardless of ethnicity--would be welcome.

About 300 people waited in long lines to take the LAPD’s written exam, the first step in the department’s application process. Seminars on women in law enforcement and on interview techniques were also held.

The job fair was centered on the school’s baseball field where a dramatic air rescue from a Sheriff’s Department helicopter was simulated, an LAPD canine unit showed how it sniffs for drugs or bombs, and SWAT team members displayed tables of weapons, ammunition and riot gear.

Large groups gathered around the LAPD’s booth with its banner proclaiming starting salaries for officers ranging from $31,000 to $34,000 a year.

Although a group of minority officers known as Law Enforcement Officers for Justice has recently charged that the Santa Monica, Hawthorne and Glendale police departments have discriminated against minority employees, officers at the Expo, most of whom were Latino, said recruits will encounter no more discrimination as officers than they do in other fields.

“Law enforcement is made up of society itself, so if we live in a society that has racism, this field will have it too,” said Sheriff’s Deputy Fidel Gonzales.

Yolanda Berumen vowed that she will not be deterred from her goal if she encounters racial or sex discrimination as an officer. “I’ve got my mind set on it: I want to be out there to help people.”