LAPD Says Outreach Transforming Latino Area

The leading edge of a new community outreach program in a largely Latino neighborhood of the San Fernando Valley is a simple phrase police say is helping residents fight off drug dealers, gang members and other thugs: “I speak Spanish.”

Those are the words Los Angeles Police Officer Jose Maldonado has been coaching residents to say--in English--when they call police to report a crime.

The phrase, taught as part of an overall community policing campaign, has become a powerful tool for Spanish-speaking residents who are phoning the Van Nuys station in record numbers with tips and complaints. Callers who use it are immediately transferred to a police worker who knows their language.

As a result, police say, overall crime in the targeted neighborhood of Panorama City has fallen 30% over the past six months. Crime in this area, which traditionally ranked first in the LAPD’s Van Nuys Division, has now dropped to fourth among the division’s 53 reporting districts.

Police are hoping to expand the program to predominantly Spanish-speaking neighborhoods throughout the Van Nuys Division, and perhaps the rest of the city.

Maldonado, a native of Puerto Rico, is credited with originating what he named the Amigo program, which begins with meetings to assure residents that police are not concerned with their immigration status.

“The first thing I tell them is that I work for the LAPD, not the [Immigration and Naturalization Service],” said Maldonado, himself a resident of Panorama City. “That seems to put everyone at ease.”

Maldonado, who left the LAPD this week to take a police job in San Diego County, was handpicked to launch the program in May, said Van Nuys Division Capt. Richard C. Wemmer.

“We were at a loss with residents in that area,” Wemmer said. “We needed to take another approach.”

Before Maldonado began his efforts, many residents were afraid to call the police, Wemmer said.

Some were fearful of being deported. Others, many newly arrived from El Salvador, Nicaragua and Mexico, brought with them mistrust of the police. Still others were simply afraid to talk to an English-speaking operator who they thought might hang up or ignore their call.

The result was that many crimes went unreported--not merely gang and drug violations, but spousal and child abuse.

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In one case, five children were left alone in their father’s apartment for 21 days, stealing food to stay alive. Neighbors said they tried to report the problem to police but insisted they could not get past the English-speaking person on the other end of the line.

“I called the police, but the police didn’t come,” said Edith Tluizar, who moved to California from Mexico nine years ago but still struggles with English.

She and some of her neighbors said last week that the Amigo program, and especially Maldonado, have had an undeniable effect on the neighborhood.

“There were a lot of problems here with gangs and drugs,” said Maria Acosta, who manages a Willis Avenue apartment building. “But now the building is calm.”

On a recent evening, as a reporter accompanied Maldonado on his patrol, half a dozen youths were gathered at Willis and Rayen Street. Half an hour later, however, after a neighbor called police, a trio of LAPD cars converged on the intersection, and the four young men stood with their hands cuffed behind their backs.

“That wouldn’t have happened before,” Maldonado said as he rolled past the scene. “People are learning that they can make a difference.”

In the dozens of talks he’s given over the past six months, Maldonado has addressed topics such as what to do if pulled over by the police and when to dial 911.

He has also explained that some types of behavior, such as drinking in public, playing loud music late at night and spousal abuse, which may be tolerated in some parts of Latin America, are crimes here.

“I tell them there’s a new set of rules,” Maldonado said. “Once they understand that, things seem to get better.”

The Van Nuys Division pledged to continue the Amigo program after Maldonado’s departure to be a police officer in Vista.

“It’s so sad he’s leaving,” Acosta said. “I don’t think they’re going to get anyone as good as he was.”