Language Training for Law Enforcement Officers - It's a Must!
How many times has this happened to you? You're on a stop and the driver claims to not be able to speak English. Most times it is fairly easy to determine whether or not this claim is true. Isn't it a pain in the ass to have to wait for another officer to arrive on scene who might be proficient in the language you need at the time? You know your community, and you also know which languages continually get presented to you when you are dealing with the public.
So many officers or potential officers focus on completing their degrees in criminal justice, and this is great for getting hired initially and for progressing throughout one's career. Officers also place a significant amount of focus and effort in completing in service training and other non-required job related training. An area in which we continue to be deficient is in language training for police officers. This is despite the fact that most agencies offer significant incentive for having proficiency in an alternate language. I know a great many agencies offer between 2 and 6% higher pay depending on an officer's particular secondary language and an agency's need for that language.
Let's face facts. America is a nation of immigrants, and this fact is only going to increase as the globe itself becomes ever more interconnected. It appears that the Federal Government is only going to continue giving lip service to the problem of illegal immigration in this country, so it is incumbent upon every officer to become proficient in additional languages and add this type of training to their personal repertoire. You might not like the idea that you are pretty much being forced to learn another language, but broaden your perspective for just a moment.
Your job as an officer is to serve the community. The only choice you have in which community that will be is when you first apply to be an officer. Other than that, if you're an officer, then you signed on to work in the community in which you serve. So knowing whatever predominant language is present besides English in your community could prove to be a huge asset in your police work. At the very least, it will help in gaining a greater insight into the minds of your community when you come to learn their language.
As a police officer, it isn't difficult to determine which alternate language you should learn. Take a look at your cities demographics and think about the languages besides English that you run into on a regular basis. A couple of my buddies are using the TELL ME MORE Spanish Language Software program and they swear by it. With all the tools available to officers in completing their jobs, proficiency in languages other than English should be at the top of the list.