Would you know how to react if someone was yelling Ayudame, Auxilio, or Socorro?  Well, this is what the officials of the Kansas City Police, Fire, and Paramedics services need to do regularly.  Hispanics make up 8.7% of the Kansas City population.  These emergency officials put their lives on the line to help others daily.  But, how can they help people they do not understand?

The answer is that it makes it really difficult.  On top of that, this help is usually time sensitive.  For example, trying to find out where a kid is in a burning building, and the only one who knows just speaks Spanish.  It is pretty important for these officers to be able to communicate in in Spanish, especially when the population is such a significant portion.

The challenge that is facing Kansas City is that they only have 2% of their 1400+ officers that are considered bilingual enough to receive bilingual compensation.  Because of this, the Kansas City has started a program to Spanish Program for their officers.  The great news is now, because of the program at least 40 officers can speak some amount of Spanish. 

The officers are spending more time in the community, absorbing the Spanish culture.