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In Touch with Tennessee
In Touch with Tennessee
Breaking Language Barriers
The language barrier between law enforcement and the communities they serve presents unique challenges that impact both officer safety and public welfare. When 8.7% of Tennesseans speak a language other than English at home—with Spanish being the most common at 5.3%—police departments must adapt or risk serious communication failures during critical moments.
The University of Tennessee's Law Enforcement Innovation Center (LEIC) and Tennessee Language Center (TLC) have responded by developing an intensive Spanish training program specifically designed for officers.
Being able to communicate with the general public is important in every field, and especially so for first responders, but not everyone they encounter will be a native English speaker. According to a 2023 US Census Bureau survey, 8.7% of Tennesseans speak a language other than English at home. 8.7% of Tennesseans speak a language other than English at home. The language spoken second to English in volunteer state households is Spanish, at 5.3%. The Law Enforcement Innovation Center, or LEIC, and its sister agency, the Tennessee Language Center, or TLC, partnered recently to offer Spanish for law Enforcement for police departments in East Tennessee and the Gallatin Police Department. The class is funded by the Tennessee Office of Criminal Justice Program Violent Crime Intervention Fund. Hi and welcome to In Touch with Tennessee, a podcast of the University of Tennessee Institute for Public Service. Joining us today to talk about the Spanish for Law Enforcement training is Maya Campbell, Spanish instructor and curriculum coordinator for the Tennessee Langridge Center, Rhiannon Jones, a program manager for the Law Enforcement Innovation Center, and Deputy Eric Curtis with the Loudoun County Sheriff's Office. Thank you all for being here today.
Speaker 2:Thank you for inviting us.
Speaker 3:Yeah, thank you. I'm glad to be a part of it.
Speaker 1:So we'll start with you. Rhiannon, Can you tell us how this program started? Sure so in 2023,.
Speaker 4:I had the opportunity to participate in IPS's Leadership Academy and through that I met Missy Pancake and Brian Barnett, who both work for the Tennessee Language Center. Missy and I were talking during one of our first sessions and she mentioned that the idea for a Spanish for law enforcement class had kind of been tossed around previously but really had not made any progress. And as we were talking I realized that through the VCIF grant, we would have the opportunity to fund a course like that and deliver it for free to Tennessee law enforcement officers. So I presented the idea to OCJP, which is the Office of Criminal Justice Programs and they were really excited about us putting that into our BCIF curriculum offerings.
Speaker 4:So we formed a working group that included Maya, who took the lead on the curriculum development for us, and then we included several subject matter experts that had a law enforcement background and proficiency or fluency in Spanish.
Speaker 4:Maya then worked closely with those subject matter experts to merge their law enforcement knowledge and experience with the best practices of language learning so that we could best deliver the content in a way that was most appropriate to the audience. The class is designed for basic or for law enforcement officers that have little or no experience with the Spanish language, so that they have just enough to be able to get them by as they're working and to either come to a small resolution or find someone, once they've identified what the problem is, to find someone that can help them further. So we rolled out our first class here at the LAIC in Oak Ridge in November of 2024, and it's been very successful for us?
Speaker 1:Okay, and can you speak to the importance of this type of training for law enforcement?
Speaker 4:Absolutely so. The importance of the class is twofold. First, it allows officers to better serve the communities that they police. Obviously, we serve some very diverse populations across the state of Tennessee, and so this class covers topics such as medical issues, domestic violence, descriptions of people and vehicles, and cultural elements and considerations such as the structure of names and dates in Spanish-speaking countries. All of this allows the officer to get a better understanding at a basic level as to why they're at a call or a traffic stop and how they can help that person or a traffic stop and how they can help that person. By covering such topics as the description of people or vehicles or domestic disturbances, it allows an officer to identify the problem as well as obtain a timely description of any suspect that may be involved. So, for example, in a domestic violence block, the officers learn to ask if somebody is hurt, if they need medical attention and who hurt them, and then they can start working on getting additional help for that person and identifying a suspect or whatever they need to do in that situation. So we give them some basic tools to help when they're there.
Speaker 4:The second reason that this class, or that this training, is really important is for officer safety.
Speaker 4:We specifically built in a block regarding officer safety. We spend quite a bit of time on that during the class. The class is a 24-hour class and I think we spend almost a whole morning covering officer safety. We cover words that may be pre-assault indicators for an officer, so words that may indicate that a person that they're interacting with has plans to attack them. So if there's a conversation going on in Spanish, the officers are able to identify words such as gun or knife, shoot or grab, so that they can then be more aware of what is going on around them and be more conscious of any safety concerns that there may be. And Maya does a really, really great job of not only teaching those vocabulary words but also putting them in context so that, if somebody is speaking fluent Spanish, the officers will still have an ability to just recognize those words individually. And, while they may not always be a pre-assault indicator, it's a good practice for the officers to be able to identify those words and be able to take any necessary precautions that they need to.
Speaker 1:So okay, Maya, can you tell us about the classes and how they were structured?
Speaker 2:Yes, this is a very different way of teaching Spanish. Usual error classes go for a long time, once a week, but I come to find out that police officers are incredibly good learners. The class runs for three days straight and I've never experienced such concentration and such great participation before. It is very inspiring and very pleasant group of people to work with. The class is very participative. They are hands-on practicing this vocabulary.
Speaker 2:We don't even spend a minute on language that is not going to be strictly linked to the field. I think for every course, but especially for this one, these are people who don't have much free time on their hands. We don't want to spend any time on language that is not going to be very, very helpful right away. And also, there is some fun experiences in the class. We also have a little bit of fun, but that is not just for the sake of having fun. It's learning a language. It does require a level of bond, a level of feeling comfortable, something that is memorable. So incorporate all of these things we know are helpful to learning a language into the class.
Speaker 1:Okay, okay. And with the growth of non-English speaking residents in Tennessee, can you talk about the benefits of anyone who works with the public learning to communicate with those residents?
Speaker 2:Yes, I think that public service workers are the type of people who already have the mindset of doing whatever it takes to help the people they serve, and that, to me, is just already so inspiring. You are spending now even extra time to add yet another tool to your box. Now they have already a set of skills, they have tools and procedures to help the people and without speaking a common language, there is not much you can do to help. It limits you quite a bit. So learning a little bit, some kind of words and expressions that are helpful to you, can help you establish control. It can help you carry out your task or at least move it forward a little bit. It can also in the context of law enforcement, like Rhiannon spoke about. It can help you with your safety. It can also signal someone okay, an interpreter or some sort of help is coming. It can also help you connect with the person.
Speaker 2:Often, it is no matter how much, how many tools are available in terms of technology to us. I don't know that there is anything more impactful than the human interaction, exchange of words and being able to connect. I think it goes a long way. But, susan, I wanted to take an opportunity to mention. As an immigrant myself, I really think communication is a teamwork and it is not just about public service workers learning a language to help the residents. So so an immigrant or someone coming from elsewhere learning English, I know for me it has improved my quality of life in so many ways and that's why I am so proud of working at the Tennessee Language Center, because of our ESL program as well, helping the community learn English. It's a team. It's a teamwork.
Speaker 1:Okay, great. And Deputy Curtis, tell us about the class and your participation and then how it will benefit you in your role.
Speaker 3:So we participated in a class at the Oak Ridge campus and.
Speaker 3:I think there were about 24 of us, 24 or 25. And, like Maya said, we got together, we focused on verbs, nouns, we focused Spanish as a banquet and we had 24 hours to sit down and eat it. So obviously we couldn't attack the whole language, but we definitely focused on the pre-assault indicators, commonly used nouns, such as locations in a house, a pistol, a knife, and we focused on these because these are the most prevalent to the job. But we also walked into it with an understanding of we're going to gradually use more and more of the language, because it wasn't just about learning it, it was about being comfortable with it and that is as I've learned.
Speaker 3:One of the many things I've learned is English is the worst language to have as a base language. It's terrible. We don't follow our own rules. So when you go to apply it to learn another language Spanish, french, german, etc. You can find you've really got to have an open mind about it. And the more that we participated like with Maya's games, getting into it, interacting the easier it became to learn, because it kind of took you out of the English mindset and more into the concept of it.
Speaker 3:So when you're searching for a word, hey, how does this represent what I'm trying to say? You're not searching for as long because you're not translating from English into Spanish, it's just. Hey, that means that I'm looking at something like, say, if I was looking at a knife, and while we were in this class and we were getting immersed into it, I see a knife and the word knife pops up into my head. But after we had gone through it a little bit, now I see a knife. I got two words that pop up in my head knife or cuchillo. So this is. It was, uh, it was very immersive and I enjoyed the class immensely. Um, a lot of participation, a lot of real uh, a real world targeting like this is something that we are going to be able to use. It wasn't an attempt at a language class with a 24 hour time period. It was definitely geared towards law enforcement. I really, really enjoyed that and, um, I was actually able to use this training uh in the field almost immediately.
Speaker 3:Um, and that we had, without getting into the weeds on it, we had a couple of domestics where, when we arrived on scene, there was one where one person knew he spoke English but his wife was a first generation immigrant. She hadn't. She hadn't quite grasped the English language very much at all. So we went to go speak to her. There was no, there was no, there was. It was a game of phones. You know, hey, my phone says she said this. My phone says she said that I was able to walk into that situation and say, okay, I'll go speak to her. No, I'm not going to claim I had mastery of the language. Like I said, we had 24 hours of work on it, which I'm glad we did. I wish it had been longer, but scheduling is a pain. But I was able to walk in there. I was able to ascertain if she had been injured, what the issue was. She had a problem with him. She felt like he was being disloyal, stepping out on her, and she was there to collect some belongings.
Speaker 3:And using a little bit of Google Translate, but using largely what I had learned in the class, I was able to turn around and look at my colleagues and say, hey, this is what she's saying, this is why she's here, because in that circumstance where they have a relationship. Our only translator is a possible suspect because we don't know what happened and that would be an unreliable translator. So I was able to take what I learned in the class that Maya and Ms Jones put on for us and I was able to use that to my advantage. And I also learned in another domestic that we dealt with the pre-assault indicators are very nice to have as kind of an environmental safety thing. Oh, I recognize that we need to do something, but in areas where we don't have Spanish-speaking detectives, I mean like true native-speaking detectives, sometimes the frontline patrol officer is the best you're going to get. And I found myself speaking to a domestic violence victim saying did he punch you, did he kick you, you know? And and we, we walked through it and I was able to get at least a working statement from a victim on what happened and we were actually able to pursue charges because we presented it to the DA. And the DA asked us well, you know who was your translator? I said well, I'm not going to claim that I am a solid translator, but I have everything on body camera and I confirmed it with Translate and this is what she was describing to me. These were the hand motions she made.
Speaker 3:You need more skills than just the Spanish, but without it we would not have been anywhere near as effective as we could have been. And here recently I've also been able to devise we haven't gone to court on it yet, but I'm also devising a Spanish field sobriety. But I'm also devising a Spanish field sobriety. I've conducted two different field sobriety tests on individuals that did not speak English and we're waiting to see how those come back in court. I'm OK if we take the hit on it, but that's how we're progressing. I guess is the word I'm looking for here but never could have started that without the class. I mean, that was a. That was a huge foot in the door for the world. That is the Spanish language.
Speaker 1:Okay, okay, and I guess you um, just like with every County or city in Tennessee, loudoun County is at seeing a population change as well, so I'm sure that is helpful.
Speaker 3:We have For obvious reasons it's kind of difficult to get the exact numberage on it with Hispanic Latin American citizens and civilians is. This contact is going up for a variety of reasons. Some of it is an increase in population, some of it is starting to kind of get into a culture change. Politics have really played a part into it. But our contacts with non-English speakers is increasing to it. But our contacts with non-English speakers is increasing and I've had my phone ring at night and they call me and they say, hey, I need you to talk to this guy. Oh, ok, I'll try, but the contacts are increasing. And also we only had one incident here and thankfully one of our other students in Maya's class was able to handle it.
Speaker 3:But there are also times where violence is becoming an issue because there are some people that believe that if I have contact with law enforcement I'm going to have no other choice Due to some stuff that's going on.
Speaker 3:it's not entirely under our control. But you know, you say you get into a situation and this is a problem that we're trying to fix in law enforcement entirely, we've got a lot of outdated training but say, you get into a situation where there's an armed man and there are four officers that see him and they all start yelling conflicting orders. You know, get on the ground, show me your hands, get on your knees. That guy's going to be confused as heck. Now let's throw another multiplier on it. They're all yelling a language he doesn't understand. So now you've really got a problem, because that's just going to create, raise tension, the likelihood that things are going to go wrong, it magnifies.
Speaker 3:So having someone on hand that can give commands like what maya taught us, you know, hey, put the gun down, get out of the car salga de carro despacio slowly. Not only understanding these commands but having the forethought of going hey, I speak, everybody else, be quiet for a second and being able to get it out there, that's a, that's a huge boon to officer safety and in situations like that, to suspect safety, like we don't want these guys to get hurt, our job is just to end the threat. And I would much rather end the threat by being able to speak at least some Spanish. Convey to him what we're asking him or her. You never know, um, but convey to the suspect, to him, what we're asking him or her. You never know. But convey to the suspect, hey, what we're asking, and he could be in the middle of a mental health issue and we would have never known. So I wish we could have had more time, but the things we did learn we were really glad to get a hold of, because it definitely changed the game.
Speaker 1:Okay, so, rhiannon, back to you. Are there plans to provide this training in other parts of the state?
Speaker 4:There are. So we have two classes scheduled already. We've got one coming up at the.
Speaker 4:Madison County or, I'm sorry, the West Tennessee Regional Training Center on June 16th through the 18th, and then we have another one at the Bristol Police Department on October 7th through the 9th. We are working to schedule some more. We have a few limitations in our ability to schedule the class, but we're trying to work through that and do as much training as we can. We do limit the class size to about 16 students to make sure that the learning experience is the best that they can have, and we found that that size works really well for the, because Maya has a does a wonderful job of including a lot of practical exercises in there. So it makes it manageable and each student can have some more individualized attention.
Speaker 4:And then to go a little bit to what Eric mentioned, Eric came to our very first class and so some of the feedback that we had in our last class as well was to include field sobriety in there. So we are looking at including some of that and sort of making sure that we're offering in our content exactly what is needed the most for our officers. So you know we're constantly reevaluating the curriculum and Maya and the subject matter experts do a really amazing job with that to make sure that it's continually focused on what is most important and most useful to them. So we do have the two upcoming classes and we will continue to schedule several more this year and going into next year as well.
Speaker 1:Okay, well, thank you all three of you for being here with us today.
Speaker 4:Thank you, Susan.
Speaker 3:Absolutely, I'm glad to be here.
Speaker 1:And thank you. Listeners, be sure to find In Touch With Tennessee, where you look for your favorite podcasts.
