Police reach out to Latino residents

With an eye toward improved community relations with minorities, Petaluma police officers are reaching out to Latino residents, introducing themselves and explaining their role in the community.

Last week, the Petaluma Police Department hosted more than 60 Hispanic residents at a town hall meeting at St. Vincent de Paul, the Liberty Street church with a large Latino congregation. Many learned for the first time how to make a 911 call and met the officers assigned to their neighborhoods.

The meeting, conducted entirely in Spanish, featured presentations from bilingual police officers, bilingual paramedics from the Petaluma Fire Department and police department handouts written in Spanish. It was the second meeting with the Latino community in recent months, and comes at a time when law enforcement agencies around the country are doing more to reach out to minority communities, especially in the wake of a string of racially charged officer-involved shootings.

The meeting last Thursday exceeded the expectations of the church’s pastoral director, Abraham Solar.

“It went very well,” he said. “The people were fascinated by the information and they responded greatly. For many of these people, they had only negative interactions with the police in the past, like having their vehicles impounded or being ticketed for something. This meeting will help enhance the relationship.”

Officer Zeus Rivera explained Police Chief Patrick Williams’ vision of “Petaluma Policing,” an approach that has officers stationed in different parts of the city on a long-term basis to establish an ongoing rapport with citizens. The officers then took turns speaking, first describing their beats, then explaining crime trends in different neighborhoods and how citizens could become more involved in stopping crime by working with the police.

A member of the fire department explained how to dial 911 in an emergency and ask the operator ‘habla Español?’

The concept of calling 911 took some by surprise, with audience members asking how much an emergency call would cost them. Others assumed that they could get in trouble by calling for help.

Solar explained that in countries like Mexico, El Salvador and Guatemala, where many of the residents came from, the idea of calling the authorities was scary since the authorities are known to be corrupt and are mistrusted.

“Some don’t call for help because they have been told that it was going to cost them thousands of dollars,” he said.

Solar, who has been a leader in the Latino community in Petaluma since 1993, added that this was the first time he heard that there were bilingual paramedics in Petaluma.

Jose Palacios, 39, and the father of two children, said that he had attended the first meeting between police and the Latino community in February. He was enthused that so many people had turned out to this event.

“I think this is great, getting to know the police officers,” he said. “We, as a Hispanic community, should not be afraid of them. I have to teach that to my children. When I first came to Petaluma there was a lot of problems with gangs. The police have done great work because I don’t see that no more.”

Speaking through a translator, Pablo Venegas, 35, said that by coming to the meeting he had learned that the police were “friends.”

“I saw a different face than what I had seen before,” Venegas said, explaining that he had been stopped by the police a few times.

He also said he had friends that had spoken poorly about the police, so he assumed what they were saying was true.

“I was under the impression that they were bad,” he said.

Lt. Ken Savano said that he judges the success of the meeting by the officers’ interaction with the people.

“When I see that many people at a meeting, and I see the interaction that was taking place, that’s the success,” he said.

Savano said that the department is looking for more bilingual officers to join the force, adding that several people had asked about the citizen’s police academy and the Spanish-language police academy that the department plans on offering. There are currently five Spanish-speaking officers on the force. He said he passed out fliers for the academies, and more information would be forthcoming.

(Contact Alex Horvath at argus@arguscourier.com.)