Small towns struggling to hire bilingual officers – Georgia
Tagged: bilingual, policePosted on: December 18th, 2006“On his first burglary call, police officer Freddy Amaya and his partner responded to an alarm at a pawn shop at 3 a.m. Searching the scrubby lot, Amaya stepped onto the suspect, who was hiding in tall weeds.
The Hispanic man seemed panicked at the officers commands, spoken in English, and was about to run in front of their drawn guns. But he dropped to the ground and surrendered once Amaya, in Spanish, told him not to run.
“Maybe because he saw me speaking Spanish, I had more authority,” Amaya said.”
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Filed Under: Language Issues, Tomás' Picks
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