With rising Latino population, Triangle police forces fall short in bilingual officers

Just a few months into his new job, it’s not uncommon for some residents to glance at Brandon Medina’s name tag with surprise, then ask the Fuquay-Varina police chief, “¿Tú eres hispano?” (“Are you Hispanic?”)

Medina replies to them in Spanish, confirming the suspicions of Hispanic residents surprised to see a police chief who speaks their native language. There aren’t many Spanish-speaking officers in the Triangle to begin with.

“And I’m like, ‘Claro que sí. (‘Of course.’) I’m Hispanic and I’m your police chief,’” said Medina, who began his position in April in a town where 8% of its 36,000 residents are Hispanic.

Across the Triangle, police departments want those like Medina to be less rare in their ranks. They’re paying higher salaries to officers who can speak the language spoken by a majority of the state’s 1 million Latinos.

The News & Observer found 10 of 12 surveyed departments in the region offer additional pay to officers who are fluent and have the linguistic capability to serve local Latino communities. This year, the city of Durham, doubled the bonus to $2,000 for bilingual police officers who use written and verbal Spanish in their work.

But as the Latino population in North Carolina continues to rise — Latinos increased by 318,000 from 2010 to 2020, the largest increase among race and ethnicity in the state — local police departments struggle to keep up in hiring Spanish-speaking officers.

The need was highlighted in January after Raleigh police officers fatally shot Daniel Turcios, a Raleigh resident originally from El Salvador. His family said he spoke Spanish and didn’t understand officers who commanded him several times to drop a knife after a wreck on Interstate 440.

Others say having Spanish-speaking officers helps build trust between officers and non-English speaking residents who may already be wary of law enforcement.

“You would do the public a lot of greatness if you hire (officers) that reflect the community,” said Medina, the only Latino chief in the Triangle region.

Medina said such a police force mirrors changing populations, which he himself is part of. He was born to parents who moved to the U.S. from Guatemala and Puerto Rico.

“You will always have community members that will go to certain people because they feel comfortable,” Medina explained. “If (Latino) citizens are seeking assistance, then they will feel comfortable going to their officer or their captain or their chief who speaks Spanish to discuss an issue.

“I think it’s great to have Spanish-speaking officers because of certain cultural differences, that they would understand and respond to appropriately,” he said.

Cities create incentives

The issue comes as Triangle police departments are already struggling to hire officers, bilingual or not.

The Raleigh and Durham departments recently raised officer pay to encourage more applicants, and both offer bonuses for officers who are bilingual in Spanish.

“We must do better as a police department to better serve all of you,” Durham Police Chief Patrice Andrews told the N.C. Congress of Latino Organizations in July.

Andrews emphasized the importance of having a Hispanic community liaison in a city where Latino residents make up nearly a fifth of Durham’s 285,000 residents. As of July, the department had 35 bilingual officers, who made up 8% of the sworn police force.

The Latino congress pushed the city for higher pay for bilingual officers, agreeing with Medina that Spanish-speaking officers could reassure Latino residents who might be reluctant to call 911 for fear of discrimination.

“We have listened to the concerns of many who are victims of crime and feel unprotected because those that are supposed to protect them are unable to speak their same language,” said Gonzalo Torres, a Latino congress member and clergy member at Immaculate Conception Catholic Church in Durham. He spoke at the July forum.

Durham Mayor Pro Tem Mark-Anthony Middleton, a proponent of increasing pay for bilingual officers, said in July that a language barrier can impede investigations.

“One of the most essential and vital tools that you can have serving the population of Durham is bilingual capability,” Middleton said. “I’m absolutely convinced of it.”

The Raleigh Police Department introduced the Second Language Fluency Incentive Program this spring. It rewards bilingual police officers with a 5% salary increase if they can demonstrate proficiency in either Spanish or American Sign Language.

At least 20 sworn police officers have passed the testing requirement as of July, Lt. Jason Borneo told The N&O. There are other officers who are bilingual but have not yet tested for the incentive, he said.

The incentive program is among the department’s efforts to hire more officers. The department reported about 120 vacancies in August.

In Cary, Wake County’s second most populous municipality, officers who demonstrate proficiency in Spanish get an annual bonus of $1,500, said Lt. John Reeves.

The town of 176,000 has about 14,000 Latino residents, according to the U.S. Census.

“We emphasize the importance of community policing and outreach as part of our core values,” Reeves said in an email. “Having Spanish-speaking officers who know how to connect to our Hispanic community is really the key.”

Help in crisis situations

In January, activists and the Turcios family criticized the Raleigh Police Department for how it handled a chaotic scene on the side of I-440.

“Clearly this was a man who did not understand English, and clearly Raleigh Police Department officers could not effectively communicate with this person who was having a crisis, to really de-escalate the situation,” Kerwin Pittman, an activist with Emancipate NC, told The N&O.

Turcios was tased after refusing to drop a knife. Police body camera footage showed police shouting commands in English while a bystander shouted at him in Spanish. Turcios was heard on the footage responding only in Spanish.

“He didn’t understand anything they were saying,” said Rosa Jeréz, Turcios’ wife, in January. She added that he was disoriented from the crash.

An officer fatally shot him after he lunged at officers with the knife while attempting to get up from the ground after being tased.

Jeréz and activists demanded accountability from the police department. Wake County District Attorney Lorrin Freeman said in June that she would not charge the officers who shot Turcios.

Raleigh-based Latino advocacy nonprofit El Pueblo, which supported the Turcios family, said Raleigh police lack a cultural and linguistic understanding of the Latino immigrant population.

In an email, an El Pueblo spokesperson declined to say whether more bilingual officers could help. Rather, the group suggested that community-wide adoption of Faith Action ID cards — accepted by the Raleigh Police Department and the Wake County Sheriff’s Office — is a better bridge to the Latino community.

The IDs facilitate identification for immigrants and noncitizens who cannot legally get driver’s licenses and otherwise have to use foreign passports or other documents to identify themselves.

Medina said having bilingual officers trained in crisis intervention could increase the probability of a positive outcome during behavioral and mental health crises.

“It takes action, it takes what we do and what we stand for to build that trust,” said Medina. “I can only say that the trust between law enforcement and our Latino people will only improve in time because of its consistency.”

Spanish-speaking officers in the Triangle

Here’s a breakdown of bilingual police officers per county, according to the police departments, and the estimated number of Latino residents. This list doesn’t include sheriff’s departments.

Wake County

▪ The Raleigh Police Department has 799 sworn officer positions (with 123 vacancies as of August). Twenty-three officers have met the Spanish bilingual proficiency requirement that offers a 5% salary increase.

▪ The Cary Police Department has around 175 sworn officers as of May. Fifteen officers, or 8% of the force, are bilingual. Bilingual officers in the department can qualify for a $1,500 salary bonus.

▪ The Apex Police Department has a total of 99 officers as of March. Eleven officers, or about 11%, of the police force are bilingual.

Bilingual Apex officers qualify for a salary bonus of at least 2.5% as an incentive. Some officers on the force are conversational in Spanish, but are not fluent enough to pass a language proficiency test, according to deputy police chief Mitchell McKinney.

▪ The Holly Springs Police Department had 71 officers on the force as of July. Seven officers, or 9% of the force, are bilingual, in addition to one bilingual police dispatcher.

▪ The Fuquay-Varina Police Department had 64 sworn officers on the force as of August. Six officers, or about 7% of the force (including its police chief) are bilingual. Department employees receive a $1,000 bonus after passing a language proficiency test.

Durham County

▪ The Durham Police Department had about 430 sworn officers on the force as of August. At least 32, or 8% of the officers are bilingual and can qualify for a $2,000 salary bonus.

Orange County

▪ Three of the 89 officers in the Chapel Hill Police Department are bilingual, or about 3% of the police force. Latinos represent about 7% of the town’s 61,000 people.

▪ The Carrboro Police Department has four bilingual officers out of 39 on the force, which is 10% of the department’s officers. That’s a higher percentage than the town’s Latino community, who make up 6.6% of the population, according to the 2020 Census.

Chatham County

▪ The Siler City Police Department had six bilingual officers out of 17, which is 35% of the police force, as of June. Qualifying bilingual officers receive a 5% salary bonus, according to Police Chief Mike Wagner.

The town’s Latino community makes up nearly 50% of the population, or nearly 4,000 Latino residents.

▪ The Pittsboro Police Department has a population of about 4,000 people. Its police department had one bilingual police officer out of 16 as of June.

Johnston County

▪ The Clayton Police Department has a total of 52 officers, with four bilingual officers. Bilingual officers qualify for a $1,000 salary bonus.