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**U.S. Department of Justice**        Office of Community Oriented Policing Services            145 N Street, N.E.       Washington, DC 20530      www.cops.usdoj.gov×        Menu         - Home
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**Galax: Building Trust with the Hispanic Community**
 April 2019 | Volume 12 | Issue 3

The City of Galax is an independent city  in southwest Virginia and, uniquely to Virginia, is totally independent of the  adjoining counties. The Galax Police Department (GPD) is a state accredited agency whose 24 sworn members  meet all of the traditional police/public safety needs for the community. In  addition, the department houses a regional E911 call center that serves the  city and the two adjoining counties.

 In January of 2002, the newly elected Galax City Council  envisioned that the newly appointed GPD police chief would lead the agency  towards a more proactive kind of policing. Since then, the GPD has completed  the Virginia Accreditation Process, a mirror of the CALEA process administered  by the Virginia Department of Criminal Justice Services, and has assigned two officers  to a problem solving team based on the Scan, Analyze, Respond, and Assess  (SARA) police response model. To help us step up this team, the agency  partnered with the Roanoke (Virginia) Police Department (RPD) who had  implemented a similar model.

 The RPD introduced us to the Certified Crime Prevention  Community (CCPC) administered by the Virginia Department of Criminal Justice  Services (DCJS), the only department of its type in the United  States. Agencies who are either CALEA- or Virginia DCJS–accredited can apply  for CCPC certification. Once accepted, the program offers mandated and elective  programs, and each agency must submit proofs of compliance similar to  accreditation.

 One of our CCPC elective goals was to implement community  outreach programs in different sections of the city. To meet that goal, we  decided to collaborate with churches and host meetings with community groups,  especially with the Hispanic population. The U.S. Census reports that Galax has  a reported Hispanic population of 15 percent; however, the local school  routinely reports that the Hispanic student population is between 25 and 30  percent. Four distinct neighborhoods are predominantly Hispanic, with English being  a second language for most adults.

 Our first community group meeting was with a Hispanic  congregation that met in the local Baptist church. The Hispanic pastor’s  daughter served as an interpreter. One of the first questions was “How much  will a driver’s license cost?” When provided with information about where to go  and how much it cost the woman asking the question became very agitated. The  interpreter explained that she was asking how much could she pay the police and  expecting they would supply the license. She was agitated when I told her that  I would not sell her a license. It was readily apparent that our two cultures  were suffering from a lack of cultural diversity training on both sides.

 Because of this experience, the agency hired the pastor’s  wife to teach conversational Spanish classes to GPD staff. It quickly became  apparent that some people have an aptitude for a second language while some do  not. Twelve staff members started the class and, while all completed it, two  members became more fluent in “survival Spanish” but certainly not conversational.

 Once we began to build trust, we began to have frequent  visits from Hispanic adults, with their children as interpreters so they could  ask questions. The children, who were local students, were conversational in  both languages. We noticed that there was an increasing number of Hispanic young  adults who had grown up and graduated high school in Galax—a pool of untapped  recruits for the GPD.

The GPD applied for funding from the Office of Community  Oriented Policing Services (COPS Office) to hire one officer with a  demonstrated ability to read, write, and converse in Spanish. In Fall 2011, the  COPS Office notified us that we received the funding, and the agency began  advertising for a bilingual police officer. We collaborated with Galax City  Schools to identify former students that the GPD could recruit. In the end, we  hired Officer Silverio Gonzales and he began police academy training in January  2012, and entered field training in July of that year.

We immediately benefitted from his employment, especially  because he was able to assist in identifying previously unknown cultural  issues. Like Officer Gonzales, the majority of Galax’s Latino population are of  Mexican origin. He explained that in most of Mexico’s police services can be  bought for the right price. Criminal justice is not an honored profession.  Gonzales was able to become a bridge between the agency and the community. Not  only was he able to provide his perspective, but he also immediately began  translating for the Department of Social Services and surrounding agencies.

 One day, I observed him taking a phone call from a community  member calling to report an accident in the county. When I asked why he was receiving  the call, he explained it was simpler just to give people his personal number  to call rather than having them call Communications; another way Officer  Gonzales built relationships and trust with the Hispanic community.

 The city received grant funding to revitalize housing in a  section commonly referred to as the Bottom, a recently transitioned Hispanic-majority  neighborhood. Early into the project, I assigned Officer Gonzales to work with  city entities that were identifying residences eligible for renovation  assistance. He came to me with the supplied forms and asked if he could revise  them because the forms were in Castillian Spanish and most of our residents  could not read them. He translated the forms and assisted in the completion of  the effort.

The city successfully completed the project, which was recognized  by the Commonwealth of Virginia as the best housing rehabilitation project  statewide. A second phase of the grant was recently funded and is currently  being implemented.

In 2018, a second bilingual officer was hired; Officer  Eduardo Mata is currently assigned to patrol duties. The opportunity to recruit  a bilingual officer to serve the Hispanic community was made possible with COPS  Office grant funding. The addition of Officer Gonzales enabled the City of  Galax to better serve our Hispanic population, including providing his  interpreting skills across all city departments. A by-product of his  interpreting skills is evident in the housing rehabilitation project. At the  completion of the project, empirical data indicated significant decreases in  both crime and calls for service in the improved area.

Rick Clark          Chief (ret), Galax Police Department

 Nazmia Comrie          Senior Program Specialist, COPS Office

**For more  information**:Bridging  the Language Divide: Promising Practices for Law EnforcementCómo  acortar la división del idioma: Prácticas prometedoras para la aplicación de la  leyEngaging  Police in Immigrant CommunitiesOvercoming  Language Barriers: Solutions for Law Enforcement

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