Police, officials reach out to Hispanics in LR

When Joan Adcock is in southwest Little Rock in her official capacity as city director, she often is told by Hispanic residents that they don't trust her, city government or the police.

"You start stuff and don't finish," she said they tell her. "You tell us you will help us and we don't see you."

"That was kind of a slap in the face because I didn't realize we were so far apart with that section of the community," said Adcock, who represents the city at large on the Little Rock Board of Directors.

After hearing that sentiment several times, she decided something had to be done to reach out to the more than 13,000 Hispanics living in the capital city -- many of whom reside in the southwest portion.

That's how the group Working Together in the Community began.

Every Wednesday, Adcock and other city officials, including several police officers, meet with Hispanic leaders at the Southwest Community Center on Baseline Road.

The meetings started in March with residents telling Adcock what they needed from city government and what they weren't getting. It has evolved into job recommendations for some of them, a Hispanic-specific citizens police academy put on by the Little Rock Police Department and an upcoming driver's education class for Spanish speakers.

But that's just the start.

The needs of the Hispanic community don't stop there, and people like Soreya Colin are committed to ensuring their voices are heard by city government.

"We don't need fairs once a year or once a month," Colin said. "We need service 24/7 -- legal and health. We have to let them know that we are here and we provide services, we provide taxes. We consume and we buy. ... We are already here. There's nothing to hide, no one to blame. We are part of the community."

Colin and her group Centro De Apoyo Hispano are taking the matter into their own hands by opening a resource center at the end of the month. One task she hopes the center can help with is assisting Hispanics who are in the U.S. illegally to obtain photo identification, which is necessary for schooling, employment and obtaining banking services.

Lack of identification is an issue for police, too, when they pull over drivers or when they are investigating crimes.

For example, when a crime is reported and the suspect doesn't have identification, it is difficult for officers to confirm they have detained the correct person. Sometimes, though, people in the Hispanic community don't report the crime to begin with.

"Usually, the Hispanic community is afraid of the police department. They don't want to report anything because police ask them for driver's license, ID, papers, several things," said Laura Bahena Castillo, who is the director of the Arkansas Hispanic Youth Soccer Association and is well-known in the community.

"When they cross the border, they are illegally in this country. ... In that situation, everyone is afraid about the police or any official they find. That's why, if someone does something to them, they don't call the police. When I called years ago, they saw I was Hispanic and asked for my immigration papers," Castillo said.

There is a Mexican consulate in the city, but only immigrants from Mexico can utilize the consulate's services. Little Rock's marketing and communication manager, Luis Gonzalez, is working to schedule trips from other Latin American consulates to make stops in Little Rock so people from those countries can obtain identification.

According to a 2013 Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation report, approximately 133,000 Arkansas residents in 2010 were immigrants. Of those, the majority -- 66 percent -- were from Latin America. More than half were from Mexico. The next leading countries of origin were El Salvador, India, the Marshall Islands, Vietnam, Laos, Germany and the Philippines.

The foundation reported that in 2010, almost 60 percent of the migrants in Arkansas were here legally, either as naturalized U.S. citizens or through work, travel or student visas.

Of the 133,000 immigrants, 16 percent lived in Pulaski County, the report said.

That leaves a number of people in the state, and in Little Rock, who are here illegally -- some brought as children, others who came on their own. When Adcock's group first started meeting, attendees asked her why they were being pulled over by police. Many said they felt they were targeted because they were Hispanic.

Officers told the group that police only pull people over if they are breaking a traffic law. Some Hispanics at the meeting said they had never been taught how to drive.

Those conversations led to the forthcoming free driver's education course that will be taught in Spanish from 5 to 7 p.m. June 6 at the community center.

Community Oriented Police officer Jacob Tobler, who is fluent in Spanish after spending two years in Spain as part of his Mormon mission, will teach the driving clinic.

Tobler had been talking to his supervisors last year about doing an outreach program to the Hispanic community. A series of robberies last winter on the city's southwest side that targeted Hispanics served as a tipping point for getting something started. That's when he approached Adcock.

He noted the driver's clinic and an upcoming survey to be given to Hispanics in the community as early achievements for the group. But, he said, he'd like to see a more autonomous group emerge -- one run for and by Hispanics and spanning the entire city.

"I think it's got great potential," he said. "I hope it keeps going."

The first order of business has been to build trust between the Hispanic community and officials.

The citizens police academy has been one way to decrease the level of distrust as well as identify residents who might be interested in joining the force. The city is in need of Spanish-speaking 311 and 911 dispatchers, as well.

"Many Hispanic immigrants come from countries where government and the police force can be considered corrupt institutions," said Gonzalez, the city's communication manager, who was born in Panama. "Arkansas has a Hispanic population that includes many immigrants and first-generation Hispanics, so some of those issues of acculturation are very prevalent within our community."

The citizens police academy had 35 participants and started in April. Some graduated Thursday night after eight weeks of meetings.

Julian Calzada, vice president of the Little Rock chapter of the League of United Latin American Citizens, is one of the graduates.

"We're trying to learn how the Police Department functions so we can tell our fellow Latinos ... so they can learn to trust police," Calzada said.

Metro on 05/24/2015

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