Latinos Call Use of Term ‘Mex’ by Santa Ana Police Degrading

Leaders in Santa Ana’s Latino community met with the city’s police chief Wednesday to complain that police officers’ use of the term “Mex” as an abbreviation in radio conversations and reports insults people of Latin American descent.

“It is degrading,” Manuel Esqueda, a retired banker, told a reporter after the meeting with Police Chief Clyde L. Cronkhite. “For some of us who have worked hard for the uplifting of our image, it is very offensive.”

The meeting was part of a campaign here to urge officers to substitute the term Hispanic or Latino for Mex. Officers most often use the word in describing crime victims, suspects and witnesses to other officers or in official reports.

Cronkhite said after meeting with the Hispanic Affairs Advisory Committee that he would ask other police departments in Orange County about their policies.

‘Sensitive’ Terms

“The terms that we use are always sensitive,” Cronkhite said, but “any change is not going to be made overnight, and if we do make a change, it will be for the needs of our officers in describing suspects and what is most agreeable.”

Cronkhite, a former deputy police chief in Los Angeles, said that his department has no official word for Latinos and that use of the term Mex is at the discretion of officers. Lt. Bob Chavez, the press spokesman for the Santa Ana police, said Mex and “Mexican” are “the commonly used words” in the department.

About 52% of Santa Ana’s residents are Latino.

A Times survey of other police departments in Orange County found that most have dropped the term Mex in favor of Latino or Hispanic. Some police spokesmen noted that not only is the term Mex considered insensitive by many, but it is often inaccurate, since it can be interpreted to describe people of various Latin American origins as Mexican.

Lou Lopez, a 19-year veteran of the Anaheim police force and an officer of the national and Orange County Latino Peace Officers Assn., said the group finds the terms Mex and Mexican offensive. He credited a group of Latino officers in Anaheim with getting their department to abandon the terms.

Officer Complained

In Santa Ana, the issue began with a complaint to Cronkhite from Officer Jose Vargas, the department’s liaison to the Latino community, Chavez said. It then came to the attention of the Hispanic Affairs Advisory Committee, which plans to informally poll Santa Ana Latinos about the issue.

John Acosta, a Latino councilman in Santa Ana, said he does not “have a problem with the term Mex. I don’t think our officers and dispatchers use the term in a derogatory manner, they use it in a descriptive manner.”

Nonetheless, Acosta said he can understand how a middle-age Latino could be offended by the word. “We went through times in our lives . . . when we heard the word Mex, it was used in a very derogatory manner.”

Cronkhite agreed that the designation for Latinos should be descriptive and not offensive.

“Our officers need to provide an accurate pictorial description for other officers,” he said, adding: “At the same time, they need to be sensitive to the needs of the community.”