Police Look to Spanish Classes to Remove Barriers

Officers at the Los Angeles Police Department’s Foothill Division hope to start Spanish classes soon in their latest effort to improve relations with residents after last year’s police beating of motorist Rodney G. King.

Advocates hope private sources will pay for a 30-week crash course in conversational Spanish that would serve as a model for the rest of the department and may evolve into cultural awareness classes.

“I think the most important problem with police is lack of communication, and language is a tremendous barrier,” said businessman Jorge Ber, a member of the Spanish Language Outreach Committee, which was formed in the San Fernando Valley last year to study often-hostile relations between police and Spanish-speaking residents, particularly immigrants with little command of English.

“We wanted to come up with ways to reduce fear, build trust and in any way enhance the ability of LAPD officers to better interact with the community,” said Police Lt. Richard A. Meraz, a committee member who works in the Pacoima-based Foothill Division.

Deputy Police Chief Mark A. Kroeker, the Valley’s top police official, established the 20-member panel of residents and police in response to mistrust he said he confronted in the weeks after the King beating. Although King is black, his violent arrest in Lake View Terrace inflamed fears among other minorities, including the Valley’s growing Latino community.

The committee, which has been meeting monthly since May 9, estimates there are 600,000 Latino residents in the Valley, about half of whom speak little or no English.

Foothill seemed a logical patrol area to begin Spanish classes not only because it was the site of King’s beating last March 3, but because of its own substantial Latino population, Meraz said. According to the 1990 U.S. census, the Foothill area’s Latino population has increased nearly 80% in the last decade.

Meraz said the panel has lined up several companies willing to contribute to the course--which would cost nearly $600 per officer--if police can pay a portion of the cost. So the panel has applied to the William H. Parker Foundation, a private, nonprofit group named after the late police chief that funds specialized police training.

Sgt. Mike Mines, department liaison to the Parker Foundation, said the foundation funding committee is expected to discuss the classes at its next meeting.

Meraz said 85 of Foothill’s 250 officers have signed up for the course, which would meet once a week and require students to listen to language tapes in between. A private company similar to Berlitz would teach the course, but Meraz declined to name the firm since no contract has been signed.

Kroeker said other ideas from the Spanish-language committee are to provide officers who speak foreign languages with small uniform tags disclosing their language skills and to post bilingual signs in all city police stations. He said both proposals have received approval from Chief Daryl F. Gates.

“I hoped the committee would come up not just with talk but very specific strategic recommendations for improving our communications,” Kroeker said.