Comments for English...DO YOU SPEAK IT?!

English...DO YOU SPEAK IT?!

2009-11-09T13:13:21Z

Teresa Puente of Chicanisima recently wrote about an incident in which a Dallas Police officer cited a woman for driving without being able to speak English. Friday she did another post discussing the revelation that Dallas PD has issued 39 similar tickets since 2007, indicating that the initial citation that hit the news was not an entirely unique incident. Still, 39 tickets out of approximately 800,000 citations issued since 2007 doesn't exactly prove this is a widespread practice. It's not hard for me to believe that a department of 3,600 officers might have a few benighted cops who either can't read a statute book, can't work the pull-down menu on a squad car computer, or have a hardon for Latinos. It's a black eye for the Dallas PD, and they have to deal with it.

Being a working cop I don't have the policy-level "big picture" on issues like immigration and language, but I do have a good view of the impact that non-English speakers have had on my ability to do my job.

I saw this quote in the latest post at Chicanisima:

You don't need to know English to be a good driver.

She's right, you don't. But you do need it when you get in a traffic crash, and are trying to explain to the cop what happened. It comes in handy when you're calling 911. It's also pretty useful when you're the victim of a crime, and none of the two or three Spanish-speaking (or Polish, or Korean-speaking) officers in the department are available to interpret for you.

Over the past decade my job, and the job of every police officer in the Chicago area, has become more difficult because of the inability (or feigned inability) of so many people we deal with to speak English. Cases take longer to investigate, and some don't get investigated as fully as they could, because of language barriers. After making 3 or 4 phone calls to a number and getting "no English" every time, it's easier to move on to the next 10 cases waiting for your attention. Imagine investigating a domestic disturbance where no one speaks English. Any number of routine jobs, from writing traffic tickets, to investigating vehicle crashes, to taking incident reports, have become, to put it simply, a pain in the ass. It's harder to do enforcement, and it's also harder to help people who need our help.

Then there's the phenomenon of the ESL drunk driver, who speaks perfectly workable English on the street when he gets pulled over. By the time he appears in court he's mysteriously lost all ability to comprehend English, and requests an interpreter. From there it's just a short trip to claiming that he didn't understand the field sobriety test instructions, or warning to motorist, and the DUI gets dismissed. I've seen plenty of defendants try the same thing to get statements suppressed in criminal cases. Every day the system gets gamed, and the only loser is the taxpayer.

At least once or twice a week one of us ends up blurting out this phrase during roll call. NSFW

Please don't think I'm picking on Spanish speakers, either. It would be fine if we could train officers to speak Spanish. But that's just a fraction of the non-English speaking population we encounter. Do we also train officers in Gujarati, Malalayam, Hindi, Urdu, Polish, Korean, Arabic, Tagalog, Russian, Serbo-Croat, Bulgarian, and Chinese? Forget bi-lingual programs--knowing only two languages isn't enough. Working knowledge of at least three or four languages would be desirable in a police officer nowadays. Then again, people with those language skills can probably find a better way of making a living than being a cop.

Oh well. I'm done venting. The best thing about all of this is I finally have an excuse to post this video clip from The Wire. NSFW.

Comment from Skylers Dad on 2009-11-09

2009-11-09T17:06:19Z

Both clips make me feel all warm inside, thanks for posting them!

Comment from Lulu on 2009-11-09

2009-11-10T01:50:01Z

Is it bad that I sometimes feel this way about my students?

Comment from buck larou on 2009-11-10

2009-11-10T11:53:57Z

It seems as if these days finding someone who speaks English is the minority.

Comment from EB on 2009-11-13

2009-11-14T00:02:35Z

joe-couldn't agree more. what pisses me off the most are non-english speakers who don't even bother to get a driver's license, and, along with that, they skip the insurance, too. a few years ago, I was rear-ended by a guy from mexico who didn't care that he had no license and no insurance -- *that* was fun to deal with.

Comment from Message from Montie on 2009-11-15

2009-11-15T10:34:44Z

I'm 50/50 on this one. I'm amused at the people who act like they don't know English when they get in the courtroom. Hell, who wants to pay a ticket? If I could get away with it, I probably would too. No, I wouldn't. I'm a terrible liar. However, Spanish is obviously one of the dominant languages here so I would think that would be taught first. However, if there is escalating crime and I'm waiting on a police officer to get there, but he's too busy trying to learn Spanish, that's going to piss me off. I don't think it would hurt to learn another language and definitely make a police officer more valuable to the company (I'm assuming), but I see what you're saying. As for that video, ugh, not a fan of "The Wire." The video sure did fit your blog though.

Comment from Message from Montie on 2009-11-15

2009-11-15T10:35:51Z

I do like the idea of being bilingual though, and I'm noticing a pattern of jobs that pay more if you can speak another language.

Comment from Joe the Cop on 2009-11-15

2009-11-15T17:50:33Z

I do too. I've taken a couple stabs at learning Spanish over the years, and it's on my agenda for my near future as well.

Comment from Joe the Cop on 2009-11-15

2009-11-15T17:52:40Z

"I don't think it would hurt to learn another language and definitely make a police officer more valuable to the company..."

You're right. An officer who speaks more than one language is a real asset. A lot of departments offer incentive pay to officers who can interpret. As far as training officers in a 2nd language, the question becomes who pays for it, and when do you do the training?

Comment from JustSomeGuy on 2010-01-12

2010-01-12T16:03:47Z

Hey Joe!

I just found your blog today and I love it. I'm not a cop, but I was an EMT in NYC for almost 10 years and can totally relate to the language problems. Seriously, trying to ask something as simple as "what time did she take the drugs" when you don't even KNOW what language the patient or bystanders speak...

Anyway, I have a new job and for the moment have been relocated to Switzerland which has 4 national languages. Want to know what they do about it? There are explicit or implicit job perks in almost any line of work for people who speak at least one national language and English. Bus driver? If you speak English you have a better shot at job advancement. Doctor? English is essentially manditory.

But I'll tell you one thing, if I could do it all over I would have studied Spanish in high school. Sure would have made things easier on the ambulance.