Better Community Policing Urged

A Los Angeles Police Commission task force released a number of long-awaited recommendations Thursday aimed at improving community policing by reaching out to residents who speak little or no English.

After two years of work, the Language Policies Task Force made 20 recommendations that, if implemented, would require all LAPD employees to “ensure that appropriate and effective communication [is made] in all community contacts.”

Specifically, the task force is seeking to increase rewards for and recruiting of bilingual employees, while holding top LAPD managers accountable for effectively training and deploying bilingual officers.

“It’s very difficult to serve a diverse community if you don’t speak the different languages,” said commission President Edith Perez, who chaired the task force. “It’s a very sweeping policy.”

The task force was formed in 1996 after an elderly Koreatown resident went out for a walk one evening, lost his way, accidentally tried to enter somebody else’s home and ended up getting searched, handcuffed and taken into police custody.

Dong Sik Chong, 81, said after the incident that he was detained for several hours unable to communicate with officers because no one tried to find a Korean speaker for him. When authorities ultimately released him, he was robbed and beaten as he once again tried to find his way home. Police said they took Chong to a homeless shelter that later released him.

Chong’s ordeal outraged leaders of several minority rights groups and refocused attention on the LAPD’s deficiencies in serving the city’s diverse population.

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Even before the Chong incident, LAPD reformers had been pushing the department to improve the way it communicates with the city’s multicultural community. The 1991 Christopher Commission also recommended that greater emphasis be placed on training and recruiting bilingual officers.

Perez said the task force incorporated “three Christopher Commission recommendations and added 17 others.”

The proposals include: offering incentive pay to a broader group of bilingual officers, providing language and cross-cultural courses, evaluating bilingual status as a factor in promotions, and holding top managers accountable for placing bilingual employees in key LAPD positions and knowing the specific language concerns of residents in their communities.

One recommendation suggests that field officers use a telephone translation service when they are unable to communicate with residents and LAPD translators are unavailable.

Many of the proposals would require significant funding, which is likely to pose a problem for the cash-strapped department.

“We’re hoping the department puts its money where its mouth is,” said Bonnie Tang of the Asian Pacific American Legal Center and a member of the task force.

Perez said some of the costs come from long-range proposals that would not immediately affect the LAPD’s finances.

“Undertaking public policy changes does cost money, but you have to look at the costs of not doing these recommendations,” said Robin Toma, chairman of the Asian Pacific Islander Advisory Council to the Police Commission and a member of the task force.

Tang said that if officers are more adept at “communicating with the people they serve, the people they serve will feel more comfortable with the police,” coming forward to report crimes or provide information helpful to investigations.

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The 23-member task force comprised LAPD employees, city officials, community activists and a representative of Chong’s family.

A spokeswoman for Mayor Richard Riordan said he strongly supports the task force recommendations.

“These proposals will help the Police Department better communicate with the diverse population it serves,” said spokeswoman Noelia Rodriguez.

According to the task force’s 10-page report, about 500,000 Los Angeles residents--nearly one out of every seven people--speak little or no English.

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About 10% of LAPD employees are bilingual, with 19 languages represented. LAPD officers proficient in a second language can earn a salary bonus of up to 5.5%.

While task force members said they would like the department to increase the number of bilingual officers, their main objective is to establish “effective communication” with all residents as a top priority for every officer. To support that objective, the group proposed that a “special order” be released by Chief Bernard C. Parks that “articulates the LAPD’s commitment to effectively serve non-English speakers and persons with communication disabilities.”

The Police Commission is expected to approve the recommendations Tuesday.

“It’s clearly a cutting-edge policy,” Toma said. “It’s taken two years, but this is an extraordinary result. We have come up with some really meaningful changes that, hopefully, the LAPD will undertake.”

If these policies had been in place two years ago, Toma said, “I would like to think that what happened to Mr. Chong would not have happened.”