Building community bridges

Undocumented immigrants in the area often live in fear of interacting with police, afraid that a simple traffic stop, for example, could lead to their deportation, local authorities and service providers said Thursday.

Latinos frequently avoid reporting crimes against them, the authorities said, pointing to domestic abuse as a crime that too often goes unreported.

On the flip side, when police look for help from the Latino community to solve crimes, they often get no help.

“It’s definitely an uphill battle” to “break barriers” between the Latino community — and immigrants in general — and the police, Lt. Todd Hopwood of the Albemarle police said.

The lieutenant spoke to a crowd of about 40 people who attended a workshop aimed at improving relationships between area Latinos and police. The event was hosted by the Albemarle County Police Department and Creciendo Juntos, a local nonprofit that helps Latino service providers share resources.

The workshop sought to bridge communication gaps and cultural differences between authorities and the local Latino community, said Linda Hemby, with the Albemarle Department of Social Services. She also does work for Creciendo Juntos.

Hemby wanted the service providers to see a person instead of a police officer. So she asked Hopwood to focus on his background — specifically his Puerto Rican grandfather and his time in the Army, during which he was in Germany and saw the Berlin Wall come down.

Hopwood told the crowd that the Berlin Wall represented an ideology of ignorance. He said that Albemarle — and the country as a whole — also has a “cultural barrier” between immigrants and native citizens, and it “needs to be broken.”

Hopwood said he realizes the fear and misconceptions many immigrants have of police.

He said he saw such problems years ago and began looking for ways to deal with them. But he added that it’s a difficult task for the department, especially with budget restraints.

The relationship between immigrants and police also is a complex situation, he said.

It’s especially difficult when dealing with illegal immigrants. Hopwood said officers have to enforce the law — and being an illegal immigrant is a crime — but they also need to be able to work with immigrants, both legal and illegal, to solve crimes against them.

To that end, he emphasized to the crowd that Albemarle police do not enforce federal immigration laws. That falls to the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, also known as ICE.

Hopwood said Albemarle police inquire into the status of an immigrant only if that person has broken the law.

Many of the service providers said there is a belief among immigrants that local police and ICE agents are one and the same, or that they work together, which leads many to fear and avoid local officers.

After the workshop, local lawyer Eddie Summers, who specializes in immigration law, recalled a recent incident in which an immigrant was hit by a van but fled the scene saying, “No police.”

He said that when police arrived, they looked for the female victim, but not to arrest and deport her; they wanted to see if she was OK.

Hemby and Hopwood said that for relations to improve, they need the service providers to help them address the cultural differences and misconceptions.

While the workshop veered a few times toward becoming contentious, Hemby praised Albemarle police for reaching out.

“I think as a whole they’re very good” in trying to work with the Latino community, she said.

Hemby had feared that some of the service providers were going to be “antagonistic, but they didn’t leave [the workshop] that way.”

Hemby said she hopes to set up a similar workshop with Charlottesville police.