California POST to require Spanish language fluency to be a certified police officer.

The Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training, POST, in California has set forth the standards for minimum qualifications to be a Law Enforcement officer in that state. Starting in June 2014 every new officer in CA will need to be fluent in Spanish before going to a police academy.

A POST public relations officer, Domingo Chavez, told us this. “After a review of many of the complains against officers in this state we found over 60% could be traced back to a miscommunication. The leading cause of these miscommunications was language barriers.”

Given that many of these language breakdowns come in the form of English speaking cops and Spanish speaking civilians. “Spanglish only gets an officer so far. So we are being proactive and making sure every new cop will be fully fluent in Spanish.”

POST realizes that California is a true melting pot of languages. Chavez explained that waivers will be granted for officers that fluent in other languages that are needed. But only a limited number of waivers will be issued each year and old for specific languages. These other languages could change from year to year also.

To actually ensure fluency in Spanish some classes in the academy will be taught in Spanish only. “We don’t want someone who can pass fill in the bubble sheet Spanish test, but who is unable to actually hold a conversation. By doing full class days in Spanish we will weed out the fakers who are not actually fluent.”

Chavez went on to explain that when waivers are granted those specific languages would also be spoken in significant portions of those classes. Meaning that people on a waiver will be lumped together into special academy cohorts.

“This is important to us here in California. We have a signification part of our population that English is their second language or that do not speak any English. They have the right to just as good of Police services as anyone else. As such we will make the next generation of cops better ready to provide that service.”