Bilingual Officers

[spetactical.com]

Hi,

I am a cop in Florida and I am also bilingual (English/ Spanish). We have a HUGE population of non-English speaking people and I am called to translate on a regular basis (I translated on six calls on on Saturday alone). I complete documents in Spanish and even had to do an interview on Spanish TV (Univision). This takes time away from my regular duties and can be a major pain sometimes. By the way, I am not Spanish.

Anyway, I am wondering if any agencies offer a pay differential or any incentive for bilingual agencies.

[sgttom]

At my agency, after a "test" (written and oral interview), you get 5%..... presently in negotiations for more...

[spetactical.com]

That would be nice.

[Migraman]

We get nothing. The reasoning is that they teach us Spanish so we get nothing extra. Thing is they don't pay for any other languages that they didn't teach you either. I speak basic Russian and some Tagalog and have been called to help with interviews and document translation many times. If I'm lucky enough to get called on a day off I get OT.

[m_chevy]

My agency pays something like 45 cents an hour after you pass the test.