Hispanic community leaders are outraged with Montgomery County Executive Ike Leggett’s proposal to eliminate programs that put police in contact with immigrants as illegals flee the crackdown in Prince William County and Montgomery’s immigrant population continues to boom.
At a meeting Thursday, police echoed their concerns.
“With what’s going on in Prince William County, they’re going to move to this area … and they’re going to interpret the police as a threat when they move to Prince George’s, Baltimore and Howard,” said Cpl. Alan Shaffer, a Howard County community outreach officer attending the meeting,.
For three years, members of the Montgomery County police community outreach section have met monthly with leaders of the Hispanic community, working to build the trust both groups say they need to fight crime. But under Leggett’s proposed 2009 budget, the program would be cut the officers running the program dispersed throughout the county.
On Thursday, the Hispanic community leaders discussed plans to fight back, including organizing efforts with black and Asian-American community leaders. They plan to take their case to County Council members who have the final say over Leggett’s proposed budget.
Henry Montes, co-chairman of Leggett’s Latin American Advisory Committee, also stressed the need for a plan if the outreach program doesn’t survive the very tight budget season. Leggett has proposed a number of cuts throughout public safety as well as an 8 percent property tax increase to close a $297 million budget gap.
On Thursday, before discussing the cuts, community leaders listened to Montgomery police Sgt. Meredith Dominick, head of the collision reconstruction unit, describe how her group works, and then everyone discussed how police could better connect with Hispanics when reporting, for example, a death of a family member in a car accident. It’s that type of exchange that would be lost if the outreach program is cut, said Teresa Wright, a former county teacher and longtime advocate for English as a second language education.
“All this work we’ve been doing with the community to trust you, that’s going down the drain,” Wright said.
