By Dirk Perrefort
The Connecticut Post
DANBURY, Conn. — For years Rey Rodriguez was one of the only members of the city’s fire department who could speak Spanish.
“It was definitely a burden for a while,” said Rodriguez, a 27-year member who coordinates the EMS and Hazmat services.
“There was one Christmas Day when I was called to help translate for someone,” he related. “Thankfully, we already opened our presents.”
Today, the department has three members of Hispanic descent.
“Of course, I’m disappointed that there aren’t more in the department,” Rodriguez said. “The department should reflect the community.”
Michael Boyle, an immigration attorney with offices in Danbury, has similar concerns about the Danbury Police Department.
Boyle said local police who assisted federal authorities in rounding up illegal immigrants in years past created an aura of fear in the community.
“There was a huge period of fear after the arrests,” he said. “People didn’t even want to come to my office. The local police were heavily cooperating with Immigration and Customs Enforcement.”
Whether there are enough minorities serving in both the city’s police and fire departments has been an ongoing concern for many community advocates for some time.
Lack of Hispanics
The small number of Hispanics on the fire department, however, isn’t for a lack of trying, Rodriguez said. In the mid-1990s, there was a real push to get more Hispanics on board.
“I spoke to a lot of different groups and encouraged them to take the classes,” he explained. “I was very disappointed when almost nobody showed up.”
Fire Chief Geoff Herald said the department expects to undergo a similar effort before an entrance examination that will be held later this year.
Luis Bautista, president of the Ecuadorian Civic Center in Danbury, said the short supply of Hispanic firefighters in the city has been a concern of the Spanish-speaking community for some time.
If there are problems, such as overcrowding situations in an apartment building or fire code violations not addressed by landlords, members of the Hispanic community can’t report it to the authorities.
“They don’t say anything, because they don’t know how to tell them what’s wrong,” he said.
The problem, Bautista said, doesn’t seem as acute with the city’s police department.
“Every time there is some kind of problem or issue, the police always seem to have a translator available,” he said.
Bridging the gap
In an effort to address the issue, members of the city’s fire department have held classes to teach basic Spanish to its members, Herald said. A list of useful Spanish phrases was also created and distributed to firefighters in the field.
The sheet includes such phrases as “Where did you hit your head?” and “We need to take you to the hospital.”
While Bautista believes the city’s police department has done a better job of connecting with the Hispanic community, others disagree.
Jose Pimental, a community organizer, said he’s often heard complaints that there is a disconnect between the police department and the Hispanic community.
“I’ve had a lot of complaints about the way they deal with calls,” he said. “Some of the officers don’t have enough training to deal with a diverse population.”
Police Chief Al Baker said, however, that diversity training is part of the statewide curriculum for police officers and begins in the police academy.
He noted there is also an ongoing continuing education requirement within the department that requires diversity training. There are also incentives within the police officers’ labor agreement for those who learn additional languages.
Pimental, who is completing his doctoral degree in education leadership, said he had his own experience with the police recently, when he went to headquarters to report an identity theft.
Someone had used his identity to purchase a car, he said. He realized that when he started receiving tax bills for a car he never owned.
“The person at the front desk mocked me,” he said. “My wife was very upset by the experience.”
Improving minority treatment
In response, Baker said that while he suspects there is probably more to the story, anyone in the community who feels he or she has been treated unfairly by a police officer is encouraged to tell department officials about the matter.
Whether unfair treatment has been real or perceived, how members of the minority community feel they’ve been treated over the years will impact the relationship with the department, according to Glenda Armstrong, president of the Danbury area NAACP chapter.
“How we treat immigrants and people of color who are not immigrants reflects on how we treat people who are different,” she said. “We have a vast array of people from different cultures and backgrounds, and we have to embrace them all.”
Episodes such as a melee that occurred last year during the carnival at the Danbury Fair mall, Armstrong said, affect the perception the minority communities have about the city’s police force.
Five people were arrested during the event, and some relatives alleged that police officers used excessive force.
The matter, according to Baker, was thoroughly investigated by the department’s internal affairs division and no wrongdoing by the officers were found. The entire incident, he added, was videotaped.
Armstrong, who is scheduled to meet with Mayor Mark Boughton next month to discuss the issue, said having a police force that reflects the city’s population would improve community relations.
It would not only help how the community relates to emergency officials, she said, but also how effectively those officials can do their jobs.
“When police are called to a scene, it’s often a stressful situation,” Armstrong said.
“It’s not the community vs. the police, or the police vs. the community,” she observed. “It’s about when officers arrive on the scene, everyone feels like they’re getting the best level of cooperation possible.”
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