Cape CopCast
Welcome to "The Cape CopCast," the official podcast of the Cape Coral Police Department.
Hosted by Officer Mercedes Simonds, and Lisa Greenberg from our Public Affairs team, this podcast dives into the heart of Cape Coral PD's public safety, community initiatives, and the inner workings of our police department. Each episode brings you insightful discussions, interviews with key community figures, and expert advice on safety.
Cape CopCast
Bridging Barriers: Bilingual Policing with Chief Sizemore, Officer Prieto & Officer Rodriguez (in Español AND English)
Language can be the difference between getting help in a crisis or suffering in silence. It's Hispanic Heritage month, and in this special edition of 'Chiefs Chat' on the Cape CopCast, Cape Coral Police Chief Anthony Sizemore sits down with Officer Carlos Prieto and Officer Amanda Rodriguez to explore how the police force is evolving to serve its rapidly growing Spanish-speaking community.
While officially documented at 25% Spanish-speaking, Chief Sizemore believes Cape Coral's Hispanic population is closer to 30% or higher. This population shift presents unique challenges for emergency services, particularly during high-stress situations when communication barriers can mean the difference between life and death. As Officer Prieto eloquently explains, when a domestic violence victim sees an officer who speaks their language, it creates an immediate sense of trust and comfort that encourages them to share crucial information.
Both officers bring powerful personal perspectives to the discussion. Officer Prieto shares his journey from Cuba in 2012, fleeing communism and waiting five years to become a US citizen before joining the force. Officer Rodriguez, born in Puerto Rico and a Cape Coral resident for over 20 years, transitioned from being a 911 call taker to fulfilling her dream of becoming a police officer. Their stories illuminate why representation matters in effective policing, beyond simply meeting diversity statistics.
The message to Cape Coral's Spanish-speaking residents is clear and compassionate: don't hesitate to call the police when you need help. It's about ensuring everyone enjoys the safety and protection they deserve. As Officer Rodriguez reassures listeners, "If you come to this country to work and fight and move forward, we're here to support you."
Hello, welcome back to the Cape Cod cast. Your host looks a little different today. It's a Chiefs Chat edition. With me, anthony Sizemore, the police chief, lisa Greenberg, is acting as our producer today because we have a special episode we are going to be doing English and Spanish. With me is Officer Prieto and Officer Rodriguez. Welcome to the Cape Copcast.
Speaker 1:It's important for us to have this conversation today because anybody who lives in the city knows, with all of the people moving to Cape Coral, the secret's out. It's a great place to be. Florida is a great state to be in. Cape Coral is an awesome city and that's for everybody, right? Everybody wants to be here and in our population in Cape Coral we are documented 25% Spanish speaking, and I'd be willing to bet that the documentation is a little bit behind the times. I think we're closer to 30%, if not even more. So I think it's very important that we show the community that we can communicate with them and welcome everybody.
Speaker 1:This is certainly not a political statement. This is just a reality that we are a welcoming community. We have people that contribute to this great city that we're in, and one of the goals of policing is, in accreditation terminology you want to have representation of your service population. Now what does that mean? It means that the police department that you have, or that you staff, is representative of the people that you serve. So if we are 30% Spanish speaking in the community, we should strive to be at at least 30% Spanish speaking in our workforce to be able to reflect that. And that's not just for statistics, that's not just for that's what they say we should do. That's an actual functioning way to operate as a police department.
Speaker 1:If you can imagine, when you're in a time of stress and you need help and your senses get you know, you lose your fine motor skills and you are really in a stressful situation. When you see somebody or hear somebody who looks like you, sounds like you can communicate with you, it can be an element that could bring the temperature down, even for a second right, because if I see somebody who looks like me, I know that they may have had the same similar experiences that I do. We can relate to each other on a very quick level. That may be just enough for me to calm down, listen and get help right, and that's never more present when there's a language barrier. So I think it's important for us to uh communicate that, that we do that. So I'm going to do my best effort to communicate uh to our spanish-speaking population, and I brought two of my subject matter experts to help me when, uh, I don't do so.
Speaker 1:Well, so I I'll start with bienvenidos, cape Copcast. Me llamo Anthony Sizemore. Yo soy el jefe de policía en el ciudad de Cape Coral. Conmigo es Officer Prieto y Officer Rodriguez. The porcentaje of español hablas en el ciudad es 25 or 30.
Speaker 2:Yeah, about that about that About that.
Speaker 1:What we said is just what we talked about before. The population in the Cape that is Spanish speaking is about 25 to 30 percent. Es muy importante para comunicar a todos los people, all of the people Right, we got to be able to communicate. ¿por qué tú ven aquí, a policía en el Cape Coral? Qué es tú? ¿trabajas conmigo?
Speaker 3:aquí Soy el oficial Bredo. Soy originalmente de Cuba. I'm originally from Cuba. I came here in 2012. Going away from communism and everything Didn't want that in my life. So decidí venir para los Estados Unidos. Llegué a Miami. I had to wait at least five years to become a US citizen and then be able to apply for a position with the police department. I looked around over there, applied for a couple of them. Didn't get hired, so I started around over there, applied for a couple of them. Didn't get hired, so I started coming over to the West Coast and then I applied with Collier and Cape and Cape offered me the job first. So that's why I'm here.
Speaker 1:Muy bien.
Speaker 3:Por eso fue que vine por este lado.
Speaker 2:Y tú. Bueno, yo soy Oficial Rodríguez. Yo nací en Puerto Rico hace 20've been living in Cape Coral for a little over 20 years now, so this is home to me 20 years.
Speaker 2:Yeah, more than 20 years In the time that I've been here, I saw how you guys worked so I liked it. I started working with the county of Lee. I was making 911 calls and I decided to continue with my career and I made an application to come here and be a police officer. So I started as a 911 call taker at the Lee County Sheriff's Office and I kind of wanted to continue my career. So I decided to make the jump apply over here at CAPE and become a police officer. And I'm here now.
Speaker 1:Muy bien¿. Cuántos años trabajos aquí?
Speaker 2:Yo llevo tres años, three years.
Speaker 1:Three years, how long did you? Work here Three years Y tú.
Speaker 3:Yo he estado aquí desde el 2019, so going on seven years, voy a siete años ya.
Speaker 1:Años rápido.
Speaker 3:Yeah, Pasa bien rápido El tiempo. Pasa muy rápido El tiempo boom.
Speaker 2:Se va volando.
Speaker 1:Okay, so, officer Prieto, ¿por qué es importante representar a Hablamos Español en la Ciudad Para policía?
Speaker 3:Bueno, es bien importante cuando uno va a las llamadas. Uno va a tantas llamadas que nosotros respondemos día a día. Cuando uno llega a una llamada, especialmente vamos a poner por ejemplo una llamada doméstica, violencia doméstica y te encuentras con una víctima que solamente se comunica en español. Cuando uno se puede acomodar a ellos, cuando uno se puede acercar a ellos y hablarles el mismo idioma que ellos entienden, ellos lo aceptan de una manera bien, bien, bien. Bienvenida Por decir día a día, desde que yo empecé acá, ha pasado los años, yo he observado como la comunidad hispana ha crecido. Ha crecido y es muy importante. And what I ask is here to help them not to get away from us or anything. It's very important to send that message out.
Speaker 1:And what I ask is why is it important for the police to be able to communicate with such a large segment of our population?
Speaker 3:Going out there for, let's say, a victim of domestic violence. You get there and they only speak Spanish. You're able to talk to them and they relate more to you because you speak their language. You speak the language they understand and sometimes that's that feels like home for them, so they're more open to you. They're more open to tell you what actually happened, what really happened and things like that and any other calls. You know people see that we are there, we're trying, we're helping them and we're here to support them, not to like, not for them to be afraid of us right and and not just as the victim of a crime, let's say they saw something correct.
Speaker 1:But if they're like me, I don't have a very strong command of espanol. You know the, but I may not feel comfortable because I don't want to butcher the english language if I don't speak it, so I may not tell you something that's important. But if I know, you know my language, we speak the same language then I may may feel more comfortable to tell you something that maybe I don't think it's important, but it could be a vital piece to be able to solve it Right.
Speaker 1:So that so it's it's. It helps everybody to be able to do that.
Speaker 3:And I've experienced that myself in the seven years of being here. So it's very important, it's really good. So people appreciate that.
Speaker 2:And now your turn, ¿por qué es importante comunicar español en la ciudad, como nosotros explicamos que aquí en Cape Coral se está creciendo, tú sabes, la La comunidad en los latinos, los hispanos, están veniendo de Miami, de otros países, a Florida y específico en Cape Coral. Hay mucha gente que nos están llamando o no quieren llamar porque no hablan inglés, solamente hablan español Cuando ellos llamen. La primera pregunta es ¿necesito un oficial que hable español? Antes, en el pasado, no había oficiales que hablaban español. Ahora se está creciendo el departamento encogiendo gente que son hispanos y que hablan el mismo idioma.
Speaker 2:So para mí es importante porque ahora la gente se siente incómoda de llamarnos. Tú sabes si necesitan cualquier cosa to basically translate that. I was just saying how, like we've discussed've discussed the, the population is growing and before, back in the past, maybe people didn't contact us because they weren't sure if we had Latin officers or anyone that spoke Spanish, and I feel like, as it continues, they're realizing that there is more of us and they're more comfortable in contacting us, whatever it may be that they need our help for.
Speaker 1:Right, and I thank you for doing that. Muchas gracias para información. And why this is important. Like I said, there's a lot of macro political overtones with immigration enforcement right now. This has nothing to do with that. This is us and our community trying to make it safe.
Speaker 1:Allow everybody to enjoy the American dream, no matter where you're from. You're here, you're contributing, you're working hard, you're you're raising your family and you want to enjoy that life safely, and that's why we're here. You know to to be able to do that. And in order to do that, you have to be able to to meet the people where they are, and and language is the number one way to communicate and be where they are, be it on a 911 call or when you show up at a call for service, or even on a traffic stop where somebody's lost, we're here to help. That's our DNA is to be able to help people.
Speaker 1:So if you want to be the best which is our mission statement we want to be the premier agency in Florida be the best. In order to be the best, you have to be available, you have to be able to communicate, you have to be able to deliver top flight service to everyone, to everyone, and that's what this is about. So the more I speak, the worse I will get. So I will wrap it with that. I will say muchas gracias and thank you for being here. It was really good, really informative.
Speaker 1:I would love to speak as fast as you can. I got about 75% on both.
Speaker 3:I would like to speak as fast in English as you can. I can go a lot faster than this.
Speaker 1:I can go like an auctioneer. No, thank you for taking time out of your day to be here. I think it's very important and I think it's going to be very beneficial for the community to know that it's intentional right. We are growing as a city and we're growing as a department, so we didn't specifically go and I didn't give a directive to our our public affairs team I need you to go find 30% of our workforce to be Latino or Spanish speaking. That happened organically, because the community is growing at that same proportion. Our department is growing at that same proportion too, so we're we're organically reflecting our service population, which I think is wonderful, and I couldn't be happier with the work that we're doing as a whole. But the need that you and the other great many bilingual officers that we have are really fulfilling a need in the community and I thank you for it, and I know the community is grateful too.
Speaker 3:Yeah, just to basically reiterate what you just said in Spanish it's very important that the community knows that we are here to serve them, to help them. Don't be afraid to call us when you are in danger, when you are a victim of a crime or have observed a crime. It's very important that they trust us that we're going to help them, not to take them out or arrest them. If you come to this country to work and fight and move forward, we're here to support you. If you commit a crime, then there's a problem, but as long as you're focused on your work, on your studies, on moving forward with us, you won't have any kind of problem.
Speaker 1:Couldn't have said it better myself. Anything you'd like to add to wrap.
Speaker 2:If you have any questions, please call us. As he explained, we're not here to hurt you. We're here to help you Anything. You can call us. There are many officials who work here who speak Spanish, que no estamos aquí para hacerte daño. Estamos aquí para ayudarte Cualquier cosa. Nos puedes llamar. Hay muchos oficiales que trabajan aquí que hablan español y te pueden dar cualquier información que usted necesita. No estamos aquí para, you know, hacerte daño para nada.
Speaker 1:Very good, and I will tell you this whether you speak English, spanish, german, sign language, any communication at all, if these two officers show up, it's muy bien.
Speaker 2:So thank you very much, thank you.
Speaker 1:That's a wrap today, and I will end it with adios, mi amigos, adios.
