A TEXAS police chief has apologised after at least 39 people received traffic tickets because they couldn't speak English.
"I was surprised and stunned that that would happen in the city of Dallas because we are a very, very diverse city," Dallas police chief David Kunkle said.
"I apologise to the Spanish speaking, Hispanic community."
The incident came to light after a woman went to court to challenge a ticket issued by a young officer which cited her for being a "non-English speaking driver".
Mr Kunkle said his department reviewed its records and found that 38 similar tickets had been written in the past three years by six different officers.
All fees will be refunded and the police will ask for all convictions to be reversed, he said.
The department is also considering dereliction of duty charges against the officers involved and the sergeants who reviewed the citations.
Mr Kunkle said the misunderstanding of state law could have stemmed from an effort to shift to an electronic citation system.
Lists of citations were distributed that included a federal statute which requires drivers of commercial vehicles to have sufficient proficiency in English to operate the vehicle safely.
"As far as I know with our commercial vehicle enforcement we've never written any citation according to the federal statutes," Mr Kunkle said, adding that the police department does not have the capacity or desire to test English proficiency.
o_0
Thank God it was brought to the light.
Wonder how the first 38 went undetected though.
Like, is there no other paperwork/processes involved in the issuing or payment?
But how they got the driving license if they can't speak at all in English ?
As a resident of Texas, and Dallas, I can answer that question for you.
The Spanish speaking population of our state and city is huge. So much so that in every Department of Public Safety office (where drivers licenses are given) there is at least one Spanish speaking clerk. In fact the DPS website can be accessed in Spanish:
In Dallas one can easily get by without knowing any English at all. They can get their news on the one of the Spanish speaking TV stations and listen to one of the dozens of Spanish radio stations. Every bank I have been to usually has at least one spanish speaking teller and being bilingual is always a plus with any customer service position.
As for the original post it makes me embarrassed to know that my city taxes went to pay these guys salaries.
In Dallas one can easily get by without knowing any English at all. .
haha I don't blame those Sylheti people in UK anymore for not communicating in English . Is not it funny and interesting that one can live in a country without being able to speak the main language ?
Christ will never be proud to reject to be a slave to God .....holy Quran, chapter Women , 4: 172
Is not it funny and interesting that one can live in a country without being able to speak the main language ?
It is interesting that it is possible.
It is disrespectful and pure laziness to not even try to learn.
If I were to move to France I would start learning French. If I were to move to Russia I would start learning Russian. Anyone that decides to live in a country for any considerable amount of time needs to take the simple courtesy of learning the local language. To not do so is simply rude.
...It is disrespectful and pure laziness to not even try to learn.
.
I read a joke about what happened when some Sylheti tried to learn English .
They appointed a Brit lady in their office with this hope that they will learn English from her. After some months , the situation is like this : no Sylheti learnt English but the Brit lady now can speak Sylheti fluently .
Christ will never be proud to reject to be a slave to God .....holy Quran, chapter Women , 4: 172
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