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reprint or license thisHISPANICS IN SOUTH CAROLINA
Highway Patrol reaches out
Interpreters, safety videos in Spanish are part of new approach for department
By ISHMAEL TATE
itate@thestate.com
When interpreter Isabel Nettles arrived at the scene of a car wreck in Colleton County last summer, communication between the driver and a Highway Patrol trooper was at a standstill.
The Spanish-speaking driver and several passengers were injured. The trooper was trying to keep everyone calm, but she didn’t speak Spanish.
With Nettles interpreting, the trooper was able to get the information she needed and send the people to a hospital for treatment.
Using interpreters, such as Nettles, is one of the ways the S.C. Highway Patrol is reaching out to South Carolina’s rapidly growing Hispanic population.
“They feel better. They know somebody, and (I) speak their language,” Nettles said of Spanish-speaking drivers.
The Highway Patrol also has assigned troopers to:
• Travel to businesses and events that cater to the Hispanic community to give traffic safety presentations
• Hold town hall meetings and work with school districts to reach Hispanic parents
• Recruit members of the Hispanic community.
The new approach coincides with the department’s attempt to repair its image after a former trooper was arrested in December 2005 and accused of making Hispanic motorists pay him to avoid tickets.
Immediately after that, troopers began talking to Spanish-speaking radio shows and newspapers about what should happen during a traffic stop.
‘IT WILL SAVE LIVES’
In the past 10 years, South Carolina’s Hispanic population has grown 212 percent, said Lee McElveen, program coordinator of Hispanic/Latino Affairs for the state Commission on Minority Affairs.
The most recent U.S. census information pegs that Hispanic population at 139,000. But McElveen said a better estimate is between 400,000 and 500,000, based on information from the University of South Carolina Consortium for Latino Immigration Studies.
The Highway Patrol mostly uses interpreters from local police departments. Nettles, 42, volunteers with the Colleton County Sheriff’s Office and Highway Patrol. She interprets for emergency medical workers if they are called to the scene. She follows defendants through the legal process, from the initial incident to fingerprinting to bail hearings, explaining each step.
The native of Guatemala said the incidents involving former trooper Stephen A. Watts of Pelion did not affect how Hispanics react to troopers. Watts was arrested last year and charged with misconduct in office and malicious damage to personal property.
“They weren’t afraid to turn him in,” she said. “They knew he was wrong.”
Still, Highway Patrol officials say the agency needs to better communicate with South Carolina’s Hispanics.
Last summer, the Highway Patrol received a $41,400 grant from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to improve its relationship with the Hispanic community.
The money was used to produce two safety videos that feature Spanish-speaking families and troopers, spokesman Sgt. Kelley Hughes said.
The money also was spent to translate the agency’s existing videos into Spanish.
The new videos provide information about getting a driver’s license at the Department of Motor Vehicles, and they offer practical driving tips and information about driving under the influence and speeding. They also show how to properly install child safety seats.
Many troopers also have gone through language training to learn Spanish phrases for “license and registration, please” and “put your hands up.” Most officers pick up the Spanish words on the road, Hughes said.
“Some of the Hispanic people we stop who don’t speak English sometimes just pick up the phone and call someone who can translate for them,” he said.
Reaching out to the Hispanic community, especially those who do not speak English, is important because traffic and child safety laws in South Carolina often differ from the new residents’ former countries.
In Cancun, Mexico, where Lexington County resident Brenda Garcia lived before moving to the United States, people aren’t required to wear seat belts or secure their children in car seats.
“I think it will save lives. It will save children’s lives,” she said of the videos.
OVERCOMING BARRIERS
The main barrier to the state’s Hispanic population is the language barrier.
“I’m so excited because what we’re seeing is there are agencies that want to reach out to the Hispanic population,” McElveen said.
Agencies receiving state or federal money must have a plan to assist people who speak little or no English, whether it is having a full-time interpreter, bilingual staffer or some other mechanism, she said.
Hughes estimates since July 1 about 946 people have seen the new videos. The videos also will be shown at a free medical clinic that caters to Hispanic people.
Reach Tate at (803) 771-8549.
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