Federal grant to aid Metro’s HART program for Hispanics

Tuesday, Aug. 13, 2002 | 8:52 a.m.

An innovative Metro Police program started 15 months ago to help undocumented immigrants who are victims of crime is poised to receive its first federal funds this fall, Sen. Harry Reid said Monday.

The $500,000 grant will go to hiring eight to 10 Spanish interpreters to help police officers in the field, as well as paying for their equipment and training, Downtown Area Command Capt. Tom Lozich said.

The interpreters will be civilian employees of Metro and will be added to its Hispanic American Resources Team, or HART.

"There are over 300,000 Hispanics in Clark County alone," Reid, D-Nev., said in explaining why he worked to include the funds in the FY2003 Commerce, Justice and State Appropriations Bill, which has passed the Senate Appropriations Committee and will be voted on by the full Senate in September.

"A lot of them are falling through the cracks ... (They) have no one to turn to and when they do no one understands what they're talking about," he said.

HART began in April 2001 to deal with the Las Vegas Valley's estimated 60,000 to 125,000 immigrants without legal status, who tend not to trust the police when a crime has been committed against them, program founder Sgt. Randy Sutton said.

Its bilingual approach has also been beneficial to Hispanics who are residents or citizens but struggle with English.

In its 15 months, the program has opened about 200 criminal cases, about 70 percent of which have been closed through arrests or warrants, Officer Eric Ravelo said. The program expanded earlier this year from two to six officers.

The three most common crimes Ravelo and his colleagues see in the field are fraud, including immigration fraud, extortion and domestic violence. As with the other crimes, the domestic violence cases often have to do with the victim's immigration status, since the suspect threatens to have the victim deported if he or she alerts the police.

The program has attracted attention from other jurisdictions nationally at events such as the National Latino Peace Officers Association conference last October, Officer David Cienega said.

"We had people from other states asking us for information on the program," he said.

Lozich said the interpreters hired through the federal grant will help officers who aren't bilingual -- more than 90 percent of Metro.

"This is especially important in the downtown area, which is about 50 percent Hispanic," he said.

As for those who would criticize the use of federal dollars to help undocumented immigrants who don't speak English, Reid said, "In America today, the language you need to succeed is English, and many of these people are learning the language.

"But for some people you have to ask, is their English good enough to say that they're being sexually assaulted, or ripped off?

"This will help prevent people from being victimized by violent and white collar crime because of the fact that they don't speak English."