Law enforcement tries to bridge gaps with Hispanics

Greenville County Sheriff's spoksman, Sgt. James McCann listens to Lillian Garcia, victims advocate for the Sheriffs Dept while they join Pilar Chavez, a DJ on the LaBrava radio station during a call-in talk show. 7/16/03 Ken Osburn/staff e-mail this story

"I always buy my coffee at the Hispanic stores," he said.

After a short conversation in Spanish with the store clerk, he walked out with his bag of Costa Rican blend, hopped back in his blue patrol car and drove through the shopping center parking lot past signs advertising Tienda Guatemala, Cositas Ricas and Gigi's Regalos y Musica.

"Ten years ago, none of this was here," said Blackburn, 25.

With the boom in Greenville's Hispanic population, local law enforcement is trying to connect with immigrants in order to educate them on the law, get them to report crimes, and help catch criminals.

But with only a small percentage of Spanish speaking officers — about seven out of 350 Greenville County Sheriff deputies and, at the most, five of the city's 185 police officers — those agencies are forced to use different avenues to bridge those language and cultural gaps.

Six weeks ago, the Greenville County Sheriff's Office began weekly radio spots on a Hispanic station every Wednesday morning where callers ask bilingual representatives from the Sheriff's office about the law.

Lillian Garcia, a bilingual victim advocate for the Sheriff's office, answers the questions, which vary from where immigrants can get a driver's license to whether deputies can enter a house without a warrant.

Garcia said the point is to educate the immigrants on the laws.

"Some of the things that may seem real simple to us can make a big difference in their lives," said Garcia.

Pilar Chavez, who hosts the morning show on the station La Brava, said the show is also meant to help dispel the fear some immigrants have of calling the police when there is a problem.

"The Hispanic people are afraid that because they may be illegal, they are going to call immigration," said Chavez.

But those who work in local law enforcement told The Greenville News that enforcing federal immigration laws is not their job.

Isa Brown, a bilingual victim advocate for the Greenville city police, said her primary mission is to get victims of crimes to come forward and talk to the police — particularly battered women.

"In S.C, a victim of a crime is a victim of a crime," she said. "I don't care what color, or what race or whether their papers are legal or not."

"If they call the police, then I can help," she added. "But they have to call the police."

Rows of pamphlets written in Spanish are stacked by her office door in the downtown Law Enforcement Center. Brown said she will have a table set up at the Colombian Independence Day and Latin Summer Festival on Sunday in Berea to answer questions and possibly recruit bilingual officers.

Some of the fears local immigrants have of law enforcement may be justified. Sheriff deputies participated in a series of immigration raids with federal agents in 1998 that led to the arrests of more than a hundred workers identified as illegal immigrants.

Sgt. James McCann, a spokesman for the Greenville County Sheriff's Office who participated in those raids when he was a uniformed officer, said he doesn't think those raids should hamper its efforts to connect with Hispanics.

He added that many immigrants who have been here a while know first hand that they've been issued tickets without talk of deportation.

"There's a big difference between what we do and what federal immigration does."

McCann said the Sheriff's Office does not keep statistics on arrests in the Hispanic community.

One immigrant rights advocate said more will have to be done by law enforcement as immigration continues to grow. Edgar Medina, a member the Columbia-based South Carolina Hispanic Leadership Council, said many immigrants live in lower-income areas where crime rates are higher.

"They're good, hard working people who aren't here to commit crimes," he said. "They want to have an outlet to communicate those problems."

Deputy Blackburn works in those types of areas as a member of the Sheriff's Directed Patrol Unit — which targets high crime areas.

Blackburn, who majored in Spanish at Clemson and studied in Costa Rica, estimates that only five to 10 percent of the people he arrests are Hispanic and the vast majority of those are during traffic stops. A fake Guatemalan driver's license and social security card he confiscated on two separate stops stick out from under the overhead lamp in his patrol car.

As one of only several deputies who speak Spanish, Blackburn is often called to translate for Hispanics involved in crimes. He said he hasn't come across cases where people were scared to talk to him after they hear him speak their language.

"Initially, I think they are a little surprised," said Blackburn. "You can tell they are glad someone out there can speak to them."