La policia – the solution, or the problem?

It ought to be one of the many things about life in the United States that is so much better than life in the “old country” somewhere in Latin America – the police in this country are somewhat professional in their work and are not necessarily in the pocket of the politicians or the drug lords.

In short, they’re not the establishment goons.

YET THE PROBLEM these days seems to be that some people in this country with their hang-ups about the growing Latino population want the police to reinforce such beliefs. And in some cases, there are cops who are more than willing to go along.

There are, however, also cases where the local police are reaching out to try to erase the negative perceptions. In short, there are some cops who understand that if they want to gain the trust of the Latino community, they have to do something to show they ought to be trusted.

In fact, the future of Latino/police relations in the next couple of decades is that police departments have the potential to be a virtual checkerboard across the nation – with some departments being understanding of our presence and others downright hostile.

That literally was the impression I got from a pair of news stories I stumbled across on Thursday about Latino/police relations out west – Oklahoma and Utah, to be specific.

TAKE THE POLICE in Tulsa, where they are showing signs they want to hear from Latinos.

Television station KJRH noted that the police department’s web site is now including links for people whose language preference is Español. Those links give people information that might seem as basic as the proper way to report a crime, or the proper telephone numbers to use in varying types of emergencies.

The police even include instructions on how to go about filing a report against a police officer, if one is convinced that a cop did them wrong in dealing with them.

I’m not naïve enough to think that Tulsa, Okla., has become some sort of bastion of friendliness for its Latino population when it comes to dealings with the police.

BUT THIS IS a significant step in letting people know that the police are there to protect, rather than “preserve disorder” (which was once the slip of the tongue of the late Chicago Mayor Richard J. Daley).

It is a first step, and if more departments across the nation were willing to behave in such ways, I’d be more optimistic about the future over the course of, say, the next 50 or so years.

I realize this is a situation that will change gradually with time, as law enforcement will have to alter its general approach or else lose its relevance to society as a whole.

But the idea of gradual change doesn’t do much for those people who are living in the here and now. And the fact is that there are some people who are misguided enough that they would prefer to have their police act as “goon squads” of sorts against the growing Latino populace.

TAKE UTAH, WHICH on Wednesday had a new law take effect.

The new law allows for local police officers to seek designation as federal agents for purposes of enforcing the nation’s flawed immigration laws (the ones that President Barack Obama is eventually going to have to get around to trying to fix).

To their credit, no law enforcement agency in Utah was all that eager to take on such a role. At least that is what the Salt Lake Tribune newspaper reported Thursday.

People who push for such laws like to envision the thought of local cops pulling people over for a traffic violation, discovering they do not have a valid visa (because they look “so foreign”), then personally driving them down to the U.S./Mexico border to get them out of this country.

THAT HYPERBOLE MIGHT be a bit much. But the simplistic thought is what some people wish the local police could be.

That new law had Latino activists on Thursday trying to organize to inform people how to go about filing a legitimate complaint if they are hassled by police officers who think they can suddenly enforce their take on immigration laws.

The Salt Lake Tribune says that activists are literally informing people of one of their basic rights when dealing with police – the right to remain silent, at least when it comes to questions about immigration status.

The other “advice” being given out to the Latinos who choose to live in Utah is to ensure that their driver’s licenses and automobile registration are valid and current. Best to give a potentially hostile police officer fewer legitimate excuses to be questioning them.

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EDITOR’S NOTES: Will police in Utah get more bold when it comes to questioning people (http://www.sltrib.com/news/ci_12742154) about their immigration status if they come across people who they think look “too foreign?”

Taking a more welcoming tone toward the Latino population ought not to mean that the laws (http://www.kjrh.com/news/local/story/Tulsa-Police-seek-new-Hispanic-relationship/mS8K37BURk-VaHdnxpAo-w.cspx) are not being enforced.