Police Response Criticized No Quick Action On First Kidnap Attempt, Groups Say

Local Japanese Americans don’t think the Spokane Police Department tried hard enough last month.

A two-week delay in following up on a reported abduction of two Japanese women Oct. 28 has raised concerns.

A recent statement by Police Chief Roger Bragdon has caused more uncertainty.

“Due to language barriers, we don’t think we have the correct story,” Bragdon said at a news conference Monday.

Terri Anderson, a member of the local Japanese American community and a college educator, took that statement to mean officers couldn’t find the proper interpreters.

Or maybe they couldn’t be bothered, she said.

“There’s plenty of Japanese speakers in Spokane,” said Anderson, a Spokane Community College coordinator of multicultural student services.

“So anybody who has English as a second language has less protection in Spokane?” she asked.

The Rev. Ed Iwamoto at Highland Park Methodist Church, a Japanese American church, said he also is concerned.

“There’s enough people to translate if that’s what’s needed,” Iwamoto said. “I have trouble with them not following up on the first incident.”

A woman who owns Spokane International Translation sent a letter to police reminding them of her interpreting services.

“There’s no reason for a language barrier to exist in Spokane. Not any more,” Marta Reyes said. Her business can translate 47 languages that she’s encountered in Spokane.

Police Capt. Steve Braun, who is in charge of the detective division, said citizens have the wrong idea about the delay in the investigation.

The problem is not with getting an interpreter, he said. The problem is paperwork.

An interpreter helped an officer interview the two women from Eastern Washington University who were abducted last month, Braun said. After being offered a ride to the STA Plaza, the students were taken to a dead-end road. One was shocked with a stun gun and they fought with their attackers. They escaped to Yoke’s Foods on North Foothills Drive to call for help.

Police have confirmed that the Oct. 28 incident is related to the Saturday abduction of three Japanese students from Mukogawa Fort Wright Institute.

The October kidnapping was not investigated further by detectives because a routine report may not have been filed by the officer - which failed to alert detectives, Braun said.

“We’re looking into it internally,” Braun said.

The only record of the Oct. 28 incident noted a dispute involving people who did not want to file a complaint, said Dick Cottam, police spokesman.

On Saturday, three Japanese students at Mukogawa were waiting for a bus on Government Way when an unknown woman offered them a ride. They accepted and were handcuffed. One woman was released and the other two held captive for more than eight hours.

Braun said the initial translation of the Oct. 28 incident may have been misleading and detectives are re-interviewing the victims.

“I don’t think a lack of an interpreter is what caused a delay in this. We certainly have resources we can use,” Braun said.

The notion of hard-to-find interpreters hit a chord with David Holter, executive director of World Relief, an organization that helps refugees settle into Spokane.

“I’ve had Bosnian refugees who have been arrested and given a Russian translator,” Holter said.

Only after his client’s court hearing did an appropriate interpreter get assigned.

“I think it’s incumbent upon every official person who has power, such as the police department and the sheriff’s office, to judiciously seek to meet those needs as quickly and competently as possible,” Holter said.

Similarly sized police departments, such as in Eugene, Ore., keep official resource lists of languages spoken by staff members, said Eugene Police spokeswoman Jan Power.

Spokane does not keep a resource list for officers, Braun said. Sometimes Spanish-speaking officers are brought in to aid translations, he said.

Power said the Eugene staff can translate Korean, Spanish, Samoan, Filipino, Japanese and Mandarin Chinese.

Eugene has a similar population as Spokane. Both cities have more than 90 percent of the population classified as white.

“We’re seeing a need for the Asian languages too,” Powers said.

They have had difficulties with some of the Asian communities.

“We have found with the Korean community in particular, there’s a reticence of the women to report domestic assault,” Power said. “If you have an Asian coalition in town, I would look at them as a resource.”