South Modesto neighbors divided on change since 2004 lawsuit

Nancy Nicholson, 60 and disabled by arthritis, spends most days at home. That gives her a lot of time to watch her Faustina Avenue block. Sometimes she sees things the Sheriff's Department should know about — suspicious characters climbing neighbors' fences, squatters in vacant houses.

But she hesitates before calling law enforcement. "If there's something going on where you need the sheriff, you go, 'Do I call?' " Nicholson said. "Because it's going to take so long for them to get here."

Residents in Nicholson's neighborhood and three others sued the county in 2004, claiming that slower response times from law enforcement were part of a pattern of discrimination against largely Latino county pockets embedded in south and west Modesto. They backed up their claims with data that showed it took almost two minutes longer to dispatch deputies to the plaintiffs' neighborhoods than to mostly white neighborhoods under the county's jurisdiction.

The county argues that it takes about one minute longer for deputies to arrive in Latino county islands than in white county islands.

The lawsuit looked finished in 2007, when a federal judge in Fresno dismissed the case, determining that the county was not intentionally discriminating against the Latino neighborhoods. But it re-emerged this year when the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeal held that parts of the lawsuit should be tried.

Justices were particularly concerned about the emergency response times cited by the plaintiffs. "This court cannot agree (with the county) that a difference of one minute can be characterized as not making a meaningful difference when one is waiting for emergency personnel to arrive," the 9th Circuit justices wrote.

When the case goes back to court, the county will have to explain why it takes longer for emergency services to reach neighborhoods such as Nicholson's.

It's been five years since the lawsuit was filed. Some, like Nicholson, say they're still neglected by law enforcement. But others, even some who agreed with the lawsuit's claims when it was filed in 2004, say the years have brought positive changes.

Among them is Dianne Hernandez, who once lived at Pelton and Leon avenues, an area named in the lawsuit. Hernandez is a past president of Congregations Building Community, a community organizing group that works on neighborhood problems such as getting streetlights put in.

She remembers people complaining years ago that law enforcement ignored the west side. Residents felt then that police were afraid to come to their neighborhoods because they were so violent, Hernandez said. When Spanish-speaking residents called 911, they couldn't communicate with dispatchers and got frustrated when no one showed up. When law enforcement officers did arrive, they didn't speak Spanish.

Hernandez said she doesn't hear those complaints now. Residents are better informed, Hernandez said. They know they can ask for a translator when they call 911, and they know they have to give specific information to dispatchers if they want deputies to respond, Hernandez said.

Communication with responding emergency personnel has improved, too. "There seems to be more Spanish-speaking officers and firemen, and even the ones that don't speak it, they seem to know how to find someone that can help," Hernandez said.

Data from the Modesto Police Department suggest that Hernandez is right. In 2004, the department had 12 certified bilingual personnel. Now there are 33. Similar numbers from the Stanislaus County Sheriff's Department weren't available.