In Spanish, Little Rock offers road rules

Driving-law class a success

Two years ago this month, a Hispanic woman confronted Little Rock Police Chief Kenton Buckner at a meeting of a group created to foster outreach between city officials and police and the Spanish-speaking community.

“Why do you pull us over,” the woman asked.

That question has led to one of the group’s biggest successes — driving-law classes taught in Spanish.

Buckner told the woman that police only pull a vehicle over if the driver has violated a traffic law. The problem was that many people who only speak and read Spanish didn’t know they weren’t properly following traffic rules.

The Working Together in the Community group — made up of city leaders and some of Little Rock’s Hispanic residents — determined that Spanish-speaking residents needed to be taught the rules of the road in their own language.

From the start, the driving-law classes — taught in Spanish by a Little Rock police officer — have been successful, with at least 30 people attending each time.

But last month, organizers were blown away by the turnout.

They had prepared for about 60 people and their children to attend a Saturday class, but 397 adults showed up with about 150 children.

More chairs were quickly pulled out, extra volunteers helped set up a day care area, and the snacks prepared for the attendees went to the children while their parents listened to the class.

At the next Saturday course, 338 people attended.

“It started out very small and as more people started talking about it, and the less fearful they were [of city officials and police], it grew from a small class of 25, then 50, then 70 and now this,” said Maura Tubon, 45. “I think once the word gets out, more people will want to participate.”

Tubon talked to the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette in Spanish, and her comments were translated by City Director Capi Peck.

Tubon said that although she’s lived in Little Rock for 21 years, she found after taking the class that she wasn’t following all the traffic laws properly.

“I drove, but I really learned so much because there was instruction on the blackboard in Spanish and English. I understand a lot more now. It’s very important to follow all the rules and laws here, and I wanted to learn how to be a better driver,” she said.

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Tubon and others said the classes and other outreach projects that Working Together in the Community organizes help Spanish speakers who may be hesitant to have contact with police and city leaders because of the national political climate surrounding immigration.

Aaron Mora, 30, said that when he first talked to friends about the class, they were unsure of it, possibly afraid to expose themselves to interaction with officials when they weren’t living in the country legally.

But after feedback from so many people who graduated from the course — and received certificates from the mayor at City Hall — more people are open to the idea, he said.

He and his wife have lived in Little Rock for 10 years and have two children.

Before taking the class, he wasn’t clear about some of the traffic signals and signs, he said.

City Director Joan Adcock started the Working Together group in 2015. She said the traffic classes would increase public safety for the entire city.

“Driving books are good, but a lot of people can’t read them or can’t understand them or can’t get access to them. We would rather people know the law and drive safely, because all of our citizens are then safer,” Adcock said.

“When you look at this, 600 people now know how to drive in the city. And these people came from cities around us, too — they weren’t all from Little Rock. People wanted to know the driving laws.”

In addition to the driving classes, “We have taught zoning, codes, how to start a business. They want to know how to live in our city and follow the laws,” Adcock said.

Working Together, in partnership with the city, has also worked to host mobile consulates from different Hispanic countries to help residents from those countries obtain documents such as birth certificates, marriage licenses or passports.

The mobile Philippines Consulate was in town Saturday.

A mobile Guatemalan Consulate also has visited several times and will return April 8 and 9 at the Southwest Community Center on Baseline Road, starting at 8 a.m.

“This is economic development. Every one of those people that gets one of those passports from their consulate, they can then open bank accounts,” Adcock said.

“No longer do we have people walking around with big wads of money in their pocket. So that’s another thing — this is a crime-prevention thing. When you look at this whole thing, it’s the right thing to do, No. 1. Secondly, it’s safety, not only for them but for the whole city.”

Since Police Chief Buckner’s arrival in Little Rock, he’s been clear that the Police Department’s focus is on crime prevention and protecting all of the city’s residents, regardless of legal residential status.

The department’s policy is to not arrest anyone suspected only of being in the

country illegally, because that is a civil violation for which officers don’t have arrest authority.

Officers also will not hold anyone for Border Patrol in those cases, but they may pass along information concerning someone suspected of entering the country illegally, the policy states.

Buckner will speak at the Mosaic Church next Saturday about immigration. A question-and-answer session with the chief is to begin at 1 p.m. at the church, 6221 Colonel Glenn Road, Suite A.

Before that, Steve Sanford, an immigration specialist with the Evangelical Alliance for Immigration Services, will talk at 10:30 a.m.

Mayor Mark Stodola also has repeatedly said the city values diversity, inclusiveness and equality.

He declared last Tuesday as “National Immigration Day of Action,” issuing a proclamation in concert with other cities around the nation.

“The U.S. Conference of Mayors and mayors across America have consistently called on the federal government to fix the country’s broken immigration system and enact comprehensive immigration reform in a humane manner,” the proclamation reads.

“In the absence of federal immigration reform, mayors and their cities seek strategies to protect all their residents while ensuring that local law enforcement focuses on public safety and on community policing.”

Stodola said people from other countries have added “significant social, economic and cultural benefits” to Little Rock and have “enriched our city’s culture, increased our productivity and innovation, and bolstered our economy.”

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