December 11, 2008

Helping to empower the Latino community. The Albemarle County Police Department is working to improve its relationship with area Latinos.

Several area organizations that work with Latinos-- the Albemarle County Police Department, and Creciendo Juntos--met this morning to help find ways of building trust in the Latino community.

Thursday morning the group met at the Albemarle County Police Department to discuss ways of opening the lines of communication between law enforcement and the Latin community. The group is hoping neighborhood watch programs and other initiatives will show Latinos that the police are there to provide services for them.

"There is a language barrier," explains Carlos Valladares of the ACPD. "We do have three Latino officers in the department and several that speak Spanish, so we definitely have the resources to communicate with them."

Lieutenant Todd Hoppwood was the keynote speaker at Thursday's event.

Hopwood's grandfather is from Puerto Rico. He says it connects him with the Latino community.

Police want the Latino population to know they are willing to communicate with them and encourage them to report crimes that they see.

Creciendo Juntos meets monthly with groups interested in developing relationships with the greater Charlottesville community.