A New York police officer was reprimanded for speaking Spanish on the job — and supervisors aren’t apologizing, saying the cop was clearly in violation of departmental policy.
Officer Jessenia Guzman of the 24th Precinct said she was disciplined in mid-May for speaking a line of Spanish while on the job, Fox News reported. She said that a co-worker walked by and made a comment and that she responded in Spanish without thinking.
“It was just natural,” Officer Guzman said in the Fox News report. “She walked by. She was going to get coffee. She said something. I responded [in Spanish]. That was it.”
Shortly after, a supervisor disciplined her, under the department’s policy of requiring all workers “to communicate department business in the language of English,” Fox News reported.
An estimated 50 different languages are spoken by NYPD workers — and one-third are Hispanic, Fox News reported.
“This policy is in place to allow proper supervision of personnel,” said a police lieutenant in a memo to the press in defense of the policy on Sunday. And another police spokeswoman said: “We’re a 24/7 operation. We should be speaking one voice, which is English,” Fox News said.
• Cheryl K. Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com.
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