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Apple Valley police brush up Spanish skills

Posted on Sun, Apr. 23, 2006
Associated Press

APPLE VALLEY, Minn. - With the number of immigrant residents rising in many Twin Cities suburbs, this suburb's police department is helping its officers speak the language.

"Escribe aqui, por favor," officer Mike Tietz told the driver of a van with missing vehicle tabs that he pulled over during a recent patrol shift. The man wrote his name down, and he and three Hispanic passengers relaxed visibly when Tietz told them he spoke "pequeno" Spanish.

"I was able to articulate what I needed," Tietz said.

Tietz is far from fluent. But he said he's been helped on the street by the skills learned in a three-month Spanish course offered by his department.

Tietz and 11 other officers completed the course in March, part of the department's effort to build rapport with the city's emergent Hispanic community. It's a growing trend as Hispanic residents migrate to suburbs and police struggle to relate.

Apple Valley spent $3,400 to provide the class. The instructor, Harold Torrence, didn't teach grammar or verb conjugation; rather, he focused on role-playing, repetition and pronunciation.

"It was very dynamic," said Torrence, an instructor at Dakota County Technical College and native of Venezuela. "They'd learn something one night in class and the following day they are out there using it."

The idea is catching on. Steve Strachan, the police chief in nearby Lakeville, plans to send two of his officers to Torrence's next class.

"A lot of departments are struggling with this. It's hard to fill the gap between officers who are fluent and ones who know one or two phrases," Strachan said. "I think this is a great idea."

Hispanic residents made up 2 percent of Apple Valley's population in the 2000 census, though police Sgt. John Bermel thinks the percentage has since increased. Booming construction has attracted Hispanic workers to the city, he said.

In Minneapolis and St. Paul, the police forces have long trained officers in other languages because of large immigrant populations.
Bermel said in addition to helping officers on the streets, the language efforts have helped build trust in the new community.

'You need to be able to communicate," he said. "And people do appreciate the effort. Their faces really light up when we use their language, even if it's just a few words or we don't say something quite right."

Information from: St. Paul Pioneer Press, http://www.twincities.com

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