Hispanic officers hired as liaisons

Effort grows to close language, cultural divide

The Johnston County Sheriff's Department and the state Highway Patrol have hired special officers to try to reach out to the growing Hispanic community.

They are the latest law enforcement agencies in North Carolina trying to scale the culture and language barriers between them and the largest immigrant population. Statewide, Hispanics number more than a half-million, accounting for about 6 percent of North Carolina residents, according to U.S. Census data.

"It's a matter of trust," said Johnston County Sheriff Steve Bizzell, who hired a deputy this month to help the department communicate with Hispanic residents. "If I can't speak to them, they don't trust me."

About 15,000 Hispanics make their home in Johnston County alone, about 10 percent of the county's population. That's up from 9,440 in 2000.

Until now, only one of the 98 deputies in Bizzell's department spoke Spanish well enough to translate competently.

That hampered a murder investigation last January involving a Hispanic victim, when the sheriff had to hire an interpreter.

Manuel "Chico" Cruz, whose parents moved to New York from Puerto Rico before he was born, will help Johnston deputies translate during investigations. A retired instructor at the state's Justice Academy, Cruz is also in charge of courtroom security in Johnston County. Soon, Cruz will begin translating official documents into Spanish and training deputies on cultural differences.

That training makes all the difference, said state Trooper Jorge Brewer, a native Puerto Rican and one of six Spanish-speaking troopers on a force of 2,500. Brewer, who has been a member of the Highway Patrol for 11 years, just became the patrol's first Hispanic liaison.

"Most Hispanic people think law enforcement is corrupt," Brewer said. He explained that many Hispanic immigrants fear that police will ask them for bribes to avoid tickets. "We've got to deal with their cultural shock."

Brewer has started appearing on Spanish-speaking radio stations and in newspapers urging Hispanics to not drink and drive, to wear seat belts and to follow traffic laws. Though Hispanics make up only 6 percent of the population statewide, a disproportionate number of them die in alcohol-related accidents and are cited for drunken driving.

According to the state Highway Patrol, troopers issued 16,199 tickets for driving while impaired to Hispanic drivers between January 2002 through May 2005, nearly 18 percent of all DWIs issued during that period.

Of the 586 alcohol-related fatalities that the patrol investigated during that period, 15 percent of the victims were Hispanic.

Bizzell said that adding a deputy like Cruz is long overdue.

He dismisses any criticism that he is catering to people that may be breaking the law with their mere presence in North Carolina.

Bizzell said only a small number of Hispanics cause trouble and ought to be targeted by immigration officials. Most, he said, want to be productive citizens and deserve to be helped. "We can't lump everyone together," he said.

(News researcher Brooke Cain contributed to this report.)