![]() ![]() “I filed it, I filed it, I filed it," he said. Gomez recalled that didn't matter to him. The cards were collected, with compensation paid out quarterly. It required a separate time card to be filled out for each assignment requiring translation. The process of handling the additional compensation was tedious. I (once) got sent an assignment where I needed an interpreter … it was Serbian.” “If you spoke sign language, if you spoke German, Polish. So when Moises got that interpretation pay, that benefited everybody,” he noted. ![]() “This is a city that has different ethnic backgrounds. “It wasn’t that much, it was more like a moral victory than anything else,” Guajardo said. At the time, it meant an additional 80 cents for every hour of translation. The legal struggle resulted in a department wide change in how officers with bilingual skills were treated. “It was the most difficult decision in my life.” 'A moral victory' It was the right thing to do,” Gomez said. After nearly four years, Gomez reached a settlement of $18,000 for back wages and personal injuries, the Milwaukee Sentinel reported in 1992. Gomez was suspended for 10 days for insubordination in 1988, and the disagreement turned into a legal challenge. “It’s discriminatory to make me speak Spanish."Īt the time, officers with other special skills - everything from being in a tactical unit to being in the department’s band - would receive extra compensation, or "little perks," as Gomez described them. “That’s my right, that’s my freedom of speech: that language (skill),” Gomez said. "We’ll assign you what we assign you,” Gomez recalled them saying.įed up, Gomez decided he would only do translation work in “life-and-death situations.” If not, he would request an additional interpreter to arrive and do the interpretation, angering his superiors. When Gomez requested reassignment to a more Latino part of town, to avoid going back and forth, his supervisors balked. ![]() “I take pride in making sure that everything I translate is going to be the same, or as close to, what’s said in English,” Contreras said.įurther, if something happened on his own beat - near Milwaukee Mitchell International Airport - while he was helping out a case involving Spanish speakers, he got no help. They switch from English to Spanish while on the job, gathering information when called to a scene, helping officers get points across, comforting and communicating with people involved in a case.ĭepartment policy calls for officers to avoid the use of family, friends or bystanders for interpreting to avoid “a breach of confidentiality, a conflict of interest, or inadequate interpretation.” Even with translators at the scene, communication can be difficult, because of different dialects or slang. ![]() Acevedo describes his skills more as "Spanglish " he understands the language better than he speaks it. Spanish is Contreras' first language he's an official "Span-tran" in the department. But it's their ability to speak Spanish and act as translators that bridges some of the most critical gaps separating police from the people they serve. The two community liaison officers work closely with residents in the neighborhoods of Milwaukee's near south side - showing up at local events and meetings. Eliel Contreras and Jose Acevedo drive around police District 2 in Milwaukee on a crisp afternoon. ![]()
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