LOS ANGELES : Spanish-Speaker Wins Backing for LAPD Post

A coalition of Latino activists urged to Los Angeles Police Commission on Tuesday to promote someone to the vacant position of deputy chief who can speak to the Latino community in Spanish.

After making the official request, Ray Perez, president of the Latin American Law Enforcement Assn., and Xavier Hermosillo, a member of Chief Willie L. Williams’s Hispanic Community forum, noted that Commander Art Lopez, acting head of the department’s South Bureau, is the only one of the five men eligible for the promotion who is fluent in Spanish.

“It is important that (the department’s) policy-makers can communicate with the monolingual (non-English-speaking) communities,” Hermosillo said.

Although declining to reveal whom he plans to promote to the post created by the retirement of Dep. Chief Matt Hunt, Chief Willie L. Williams assured the commission that he is committed, over the long term, to create a department that “reflects the ethnicity and gender of the community.”