Shortage of bilingual officers hurts local police

By Timothy Pratt (contact)

Thursday, Sept. 30, 2004 | 8:52 a.m.

Las Vegas Valley police agencies are acutely aware of the rising Hispanic population noted in the census numbers released today that show Hispanics make up 24.4 percent of Clark County's residents.

They are continually trying to keep up with the need to communicate with those Spanish-speaking newcomers as they respond to calls, and are planning a joint recruitment effort 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday at the Community College of Southern Nevada, Charleston Campus, Building D, Room 152.

Nevada Highway Patrol Trooper Loy Hixson, one of seven bilingual troopers on a force of 65, recalls the time he was called to the scene of a car wreck because the troopers who had first arrived couldn't figure out how to contact the mother of a 1 1/2-year-old boy in one of the cars because the boy's father didn't speak English.

Henderson Police Officer Mike Hull recently relied on an 8-year-old to translate as the boy's Spanish-speaking parents wound down from a fight.

On another occasion, Hull's colleague, Joe Yzaguirre, had to tell a man who was slumped over the wheel of his car in the middle of St. Rose Parkway to get out without reaching into the back seat -- but he didn't know how to say all of that in Spanish.

Police departments and the highway patrol pay incentives ranging from a flat fee to a percentage of salary to officers who can pass differing tests of bilingual abilities, officials said Wednesday.

Only North Las Vegas Police could supply data on the number of bilingual officers on its force, however. Fifteen of its 240 patrol officers, or 6.3 percent, speak Spanish and English, spokesman Tim Bedwell said.

The Hispanic population in North Las Vegas was 43,435 in the 2000 Census, out of a total population of 115,488 -- or 37.6 percent.

The other departments -- Metro and Henderson -- said about 10 percent and 7 percent, respectively, of their officers were bilingual. Metro spokesman Luis Tellez and Henderson's Todd Rasmussen didn't have exact numbers, however.

And none of the departments had the number of bilingual call-takers they employ. Those are the operators that take calls on 911 and 311.

Metro's jurisdiction -- Las Vegas and unincorporated Clark County -- had a Hispanic population estimated at 22.3 percent in the 2000 Census.

Henderson's was 10.7 percent.

Bedwell said his department -- North Las Vegas, the city in the valley with the largest Hispanic population -- does not pay bilingual call-takers anything extra.

"There's no incentive for dispatchers. Who would want to do something extra?" Bedwell said.

As for why it has been difficult to recruit more bilingual men and women into law enforcement, officials at a press conference Wednesday to announce Saturday's event had differing theories.

Hixson said many minorities in general "have a fear -- they feel alienated and have a lack of information" about law enforcement as a career.

Bedwell noted that "a large part of the population isn't even eligible" to work in the different police departments, since they're not citizens.

But his colleague Dennis Rowan, a training officer, was optimistic.

"We still haven't tapped out the local community," he said.