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When David Hernandez was 15 years old, he watched a police officer put his father in a chokehold.
The plainclothes officer, incorrectly suspecting the elder Hernandez had illegal drugs on him, tracked him from Jamaica Plain to the family’s home in Roslindale.
For David Hernandez, it was an impression that lasted a lifetime. And it was one he had to square with his previous experience with law enforcement.
“When I was a kid, I had a community service officer really involved in my life,” Hernandez, now 35, and a sergeant with the Boston Police Department with 10 years on the job, told MassLive.
“He was my Little League coach ... I thought that was what policing was, giving back to the community, having fun,” he said.
That formative experience at just 15 “lit a fire under me to understand why this occurs, and to make sure it never happens to another kid or family again,” he said.
“That has been my driving factor ever since,” he said.
In 2017, after just four years of walking the beat, Hernandez founded the Latino Law Enforcement Officers Group of Boston. He’s currently its president.
The group started out as a way for the department’s Hispanic and Latino officers to get together to blow off steam.
It since has grown into a bustling organization that oversees a host of efforts, including a “pre-academy” training program aimed at both demystifying police work and expanding the department’s minority ranks.
“It’s 100% aimed at being a bridge between the community and the police,” he said. “As we grow as an organization, we see the data. We now have proof that the work that we’re doing is building bridges.”
On Friday, Hernandez will be among the attendees at the annual El Mundo Hispanic Heritage Breakfast at the Boston Park Plaza Hotel.
The event, which is part of Hispanic Heritage Month observances, is intended to honor the contributions of Latino veterans and law enforcement officers.
Since 1980, Boston’s Latino residents have accounted for 92% of the city’s population growth, according to Boston Indicators, the research arm of the Boston Foundation.
Those same residents also account for 24% of births, and 31% of its children, “contributing to Boston’s population of the future,” the analysis noted.
That means it’s more important than ever for the capital city’s police department to look like the people it serves.
But relationships between the city’s communities of color and law enforcement, writ large, has been a fraught one.
That’s a point that Hernandez readily conceded, and acknowledged that it takes work to overcome.
That starts by showing people that there’s a human beneath the badge, he said.
“It’s understanding that our communities of color have a fundamental issue with law enforcement,” he said. “We know it’s not about us, as individuals. It’s the uniform we wear and what it represents.”
“If officers can take a step back, and know that there is resistance there,” he continued. “That’s what we try to tell our [academy] students and [organization] members. When they understand that, there’s a chance to break down barriers.”
“The kid isn’t mad at the officer, he’s mad at the uniform he wears,” Hernandez continued. “So now the officer can build that relationship, and empathize, and tell them you understand why they feel the way that they feel.”
The “pre-academy” program, a 10-week course that prepares its participants for a career in law enforcement.
“We knew there was a big issue with recruitment,” he said. “People don’t understand what it’s like to be a police officer. You can take a guess, but until you do the work, you don’t understand. It goes beyond just arresting people.”
That effort expanded to include a preparatory course for the civil service exam, Hernandez said.
With his presence on the dais on Friday, it’s pretty clear the work has not gone unnoticed.
But for Hernandez, the recognition for a job well done is less important than getting the job done in the first place.
And that means the work is not his group’s alone. It means calling in such community partners as Boston University, which lent a hand with a massive clean-up at a playground in Mattapan.
It also means enlisting the aid of the Berkshire Partners Blue Hill Boys & Girls Club, in Dorchester, which provides space for that pre-academy training program.
It further means getting Latino food giant Goya Foods to donate tens of thousands of pounds of food that’s then redistributed around the city and the greater Boston area.
“It goes back to the building of the bridges. It connects people with officers outside their uniform,” he said.
For more information about the Latino Law Enforcement Officers of Boston, follow them on social media at @LLEGO_Boston or visit their website. Email [email protected] for information about the training program.
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