In a first step toward reconciliation, about 100 Latino D.C. residents met Nov. 17 with Police Chief Charles Ramsey. The meeting, conducted in both English and Spanish, was held at La Casa Del Pueblo United Methodist Church in Columbia Heights.

"The most important thing is to establish a dialogue so we don’t end up with a situation like we did several years ago," Ramsey told the crowd, citing the 1991 Mount Pleasant riots. Those riots began when MPD officers shot and wounded a Latino man during an arrest attempt.

While some people expressed concern over much-talked-about issues like a lack of police presence in the neighborhoods, most told stories of being mistaken for criminals simply because they are Latino — and poor response by police to their complaints.

"Right now, many community members feel that the burden of proof lies with them," Saul Solorzano told Ramsey.

A survey conducted by the Latino Civil Rights Center, which sponsored the meeting, showed Latino residents are concerned about a lack of sensitivity by police toward Latinos, poor communication due to a lack of bilingual services and a lack of trust from the community toward the police department. Residents and community activists also expressed concern over the relatively few Hispanic officers on the police force.

"Help me find (Latinos) who want to be police officers in Washington, D.C.," Ramsey responded. "Tell me where to be and I’ll have recruiters there tomorrow morning."

Third Police District Commander Jose Acosta, the first Hispanic police commander in the city, said he is working with Ramsey to reassign Latino officers to areas with the greatest concentration of Hispanic residents. He also said he is working on a program to teach Spanish to English-speaking residents.

Many residents also complained about police officers asking them for immigration papers, a practice Ramsey repeatedly tried to assure the crowd is strictly against police policy. Ramsey said he has issued a police directive and briefed officers at roll calls about the issue, but acknowledged that those officers who do ask people for their immigration papers most likely already know they’re not supposed to.

Ramsey repeatedly told the gathering that they should report any instances of misconduct to his office, the district commanders’ offices or the Latino Civil Rights Center if they are not comfortable talking to the police.

Acosta said he hopes to reopen a police work station at the corner of 18th Street and Columbia Road soon to help serve Latinos who are not comfortable going to the police districts for help.

Ramsey, who left Chicago’s police force in April to take the helm as D.C.’s police chief, cautioned the crowd that change will not come to his department overnight.

"I don’t have a magic formula here," Ramsey said. "It takes time to change attitudes. But I believe it starts with me sending the message that that sort of behavior is not acceptable."

Copyright 1998, The Common Denominator