Hispanic Public Safety Initiative
The Hispanic Public Safety Initiative is a public safety program initiated in partnership with the Hispanic Apostolate Community Services Catholic Charities in late 2007 after assault incidents began to rise among the newly arrived Latino migrant workers in the city of New Orleans. After several discussions with the New Orleans Police Department, it became apparent that much needed to be done in order to better enable law enforcement to stem this rising tide of assaults.
With grants from Baptist Community Ministries and United Way of Greater New Orleans, the Hispanic Public Safety Initiative launched in May 2008. The goal of the program is improved relations between the Latino community and law enforcement. Regardless of a person's immigration status, public safety is a concern of all who live in the New Orleans area. Through our program, we hope to improve overall public safety by strengthening relations between the Latino community and law enforcement so that victims of crimes do not remain silent.
Program Components
The Hispanic Public Safety Initiatve is currently developing several strategies that are aimed at addressing cultural misperceptions and misinformation and language/cultural barriers within both law enforcement and the Latino community.
Cultural Sensitivity: The first step is to prepare adequate training for our law enforcement personnel. The Hispanic Public Safety Initiative has taken the lead on developing a day-long cultural sensitivity workshop that educates law enforcement personnel about the cultural and language barriers within and among the diverse Latino community. Our goal is to begin to help not just the New Orleans Police Department, but the entire region's law enforcement agencies, to catch up to national best practices in cultural sensitivity training. Places such as Austin, Texas and Miami-Dade County have over ten years of offering progressive, best-practices based cultural sensitivity training to their law enforcement officers. We will be learning from them, among others, in order to bring that knowledge to our area so that we can better serve non-English or limited English profiicent individuals.
Educational Outreach: The next step is to create a strategy for a host of educational outreach activities and tools. We are currently developing several education materials on public safety rights that we will disseminate to the Latino community through a variety of engagement opportunities, be it an educational forum, a community meeting, or on the street and in neighborhoods. Simply knowing what rights one has, regardless of immigration status, is often the most critical step towards generating confidence in a person's willingness to report a crime.
Capacity Development: One of the critical needs in our local law enforcement is securing the capacity needed to be able to address the community's needs. As we strengthen our partnership with local law enforcement agencies, we will also be looking at opportunities to secure the needed resources that law enforcement will need in order to better serve the limited English proficient members of our community. One strategy we are already pursuing in this area is the creation of a pool of interpreters who can be available for immediate interpretation when a police officer needs help communicating with a non-English speaking indivdual or group.
Program Partners
In addition to the Hispanic Apostolate and the New Orleans Police Department, several partners work with us on this effort. These partners include: the Loyola Law Clinic, Crimestoppers, Catholic Charities Immigration and Refugee Services, the New Orleans Public Defenders Unit, and the New Orleans Crime Coalition (which is a coalition created by Common Good and that consists of lead non-profits, private industry and public agencies).
Additional Program Goals
As we implement our initial strategies, Puentes will look toward areas of improvement that can be achieved through system changes not just in law enforcement, but across the entire criminal justice system. The current challenges that the entire system faces notwithstanding, Puentes wants to ensure that as the community works to improve the system that there are strategies and policies implemented that address the needs of limited English proificent members of our community. We have already begun to look at, for example, how criminal court in Orleans Parish handles cases in which there is a limited English proficient individual. Strict standards must be installed at both the city and the state level in order to ensure constitutional rights of due process, which are afforded to every individual who is tried in a United States court, regardless of immigration status.
Volunteer Opportunities
The Hispanic Public Safety Initiative will be creating several volunteer opportunities in which the community can get involved. Currently we are developing three areas of volunteer opportunities. These include: interpretation for law enforcement and the court system, observation of court proceedings, and participation in community law enforcement meetings. For more information about these opportunities, contact us at the numbers and e-mail addresses listed below. Also, if you are interested in volunteering in this, or another program area, sign up online at our LatiNola website.
Program Contact Info
For more information about our program, or to speak to us about volunteering, contact:
Eva San Martín: 504.208.8004 or via e-mail at esanmartin@archdiocese-no.org
Lucas Díaz: 504.821.7228 or via e-mail at lucasdiaz@puentesno.org |
