Spanish on the job
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he fact that Spanish is Utah's most common language after English irritates a lot of Utahns. Read the letters to the editor on this page over time and you'll see that sentiment expressed with some regularity.
The annoyance appears to stem from the reluctance of some immigrants, now that they're living here, to assimilate into our culture by learning English. And there's another assumption: that people who only speak Spanish probably are in this country illegally.
That being the widespread perception, anyone could have predicted the grumbling after a recent Standard-Examiner story headlined, "Wanted: Spanish-speaking police officers." We've received letters and phone calls on the subject, with most people wondering why communities should have to worry about having peace officers speak Spanish -- everyone else, they say, should be speaking English.
Ah, would that we lived in a world so neat and tidy, we'd never have to puzzle over such things.
But the reality of Utah in the 21st century is that increasing numbers of the people we live near or work with speak Spanish and only Spanish. This fact presents surprisingly few problems for most of us in our day-to-day lives, but when it comes to the realm of public safety, it can be a seriousobstacle.
As Ogden City Councilman Jesse Garcia reminded our reporter Jesse Fruhwirth, an incident in Junction City several years ago is a good example of what can happen because of the language barrier: A child had been raped and murdered, and while the police were there attempting to interview residents of the neighborhood for information about the crime -- the police didn't speak Spanish, but the civilians spoke only Spanish -- suspect No. 1, who was upstairs in the house near where the body was found, had time to flee. (He was later apprehended and convicted of the crime.)
All sorts of police investigations -- from the gravely serious to the typically mundane -- can be similarly impeded by an officer's inability to decipher a victim's or witness' Spanish. For that reason, police departments all over the Top of Utah are pleased when they have an officer -- or two or three; Ogden has six -- who speak Spanish.
For now, though, the incentives for officers to expand their language skills are insignificant. Ogden pays an extra $25 per month to its Spanish-speaking officers. Layton pays nothing extra. In fact, some officers reportedly view the ability to speak Spanish as a liability because they get called on to assist in other officers' cases, but rarely are treated to reciprocal help with their own. As Fruhwirth's story noted, there are suspicions that some officers who can speak Spanish keep that fact a secret so they aren't burdened with extra, uncompensated work.
The solution, as we see it, is that cities and counties need to begin looking at this situation more realistically. They need more bilingual officers. In order to get them, they'll have to start paying a little something more each month -- more than the paltry $25 bonus offered by Ogden. Furthermore, governments should offer subsidized language training for those officers who want to learn Spanish; in return, officers should be contractually obligated to remain on the city's payroll for a certain number of years or forfeit the cost of their education.
We agree that more Spanish-speaking officers would improveservice and public safety in the Top of Utah. The demand is there, so it's time for cities and counties -- and officers -- to step up.
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