Arlington Police Form
Partnership With
Nicaraguan City
By KATE GORMAN
Arlington — San Juan del
Sur, Nicaragua, and
Arlington seemingly have
little in common. One is
a small coastal town in
Central America. The
other is a sprawling
landlocked city in
Texas. But officials
believe both communities
can benefit from a new
partnership between
their police
departments.
Arlington Sgt. Os Flores
recently returned from a
trip to the Nicaraguan
town, where he shared
strategies for building
relationships with
residents. He was
invited by George
Cooper, 36, of
Arlington, who has been
dividing his time
between Texas and
Nicaragua for the past
few years.
Cooper is a board member
of Amigos de la Policia
(Friends of the Police),
a new community group of
foreigners and
Nicaraguans that’s
working to support
police in San Juan del
Sur. The group paid for
Flores’ trip.
"We take for granted
what we have in the
U.S.," Cooper said,
adding that police in
the town of 20,000 often
lack basic tools —
handcuffs, batons,
uniforms, guns.
"It used to be if you
called, you’d have to
send a taxi for them
because they didn’t have
gasoline for their
motorcycles," he said.
In the past year, the
Amigos have provided a
few vehicles and funds
to add eight officers to
the force — they now
have 26 — but the Amigos
also wanted to provide
opportunities for
professional development
as San Juan del Sur
grows as a tourist
destination.
It’s not unusual to see
livestock meandering
along the town’s unpaved
roads, but Americans and
Canadians have become a
more common sight in the
past 10 years. North
Americans like Cooper
are retiring to the
area, and every week
thousands of tourists
pour out of cruise ships
and into the town’s
businesses and beaches.
Often, foreigners assume
that Nicaragua and its
police are the same as
back home. That’s a
concept Arlington police
can relate to, Flores
said.
"With all the venues we
have here, we know
there’s going to be a
lot of people in our
city that come from
different areas of our
country and from other
parts of the world," he
said, referring to
Arlington’s many sports
and entertainment
destinations, such as
Rangers Ballpark and Six
Flags Over Texas.
Flores helped the
Nicaraguan police
develop strategies to
find more funding and to
engage with locals and
tourists. Building
relationships with the
community can help
police fight crime more
effectively, especially
the types of thefts and
robberies that are
common in a tourist
area, said Flores, who
worked in Arlington’s
crime prevention unit
for four years.
After returning home
last month, Flores
prepared a presentation
about the trip for the
Arlington Police
Department’s command
staff. That presentation
will be made available
to Arlington officers
through the department’s
intranet site and
incorporated into the
Spanish classes Flores
teaches, Police Chief
Theron Bowman said.
Bowman, who has traveled
internationally to share
information about
community policing, said
he expects Arlington
officers to get a lot
out of the stories
Flores brought home from
Nicaragua.
"You have people who are
working for $150 month,"
Bowman said. "They’re
doing a job for almost
nothing with
substantially fewer
resources, yet they’re
committed to the
principles of helping
other people." |
