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A revamped Spanish-language program is doing its part to improve the county police department's relationship with the booming Latino population.

For years, Montgomery County Police Department employees enrolled in the Spanish-language program learned just basic commands, a four-hour class of what instructor Carmen Roman calls "Police Spanish."

"It was words without any context: ‘Hands up!' and ‘Get out of the car!' But this is such an innovation, to create genuine fluency," she explained in Spanish last week at the Public Safety Training Academy after teaching a group of low-intermediate level students.

Roman — a Bethesda resident who has been teaching Spanish for more than 35 years, most recently at the University of Maryland — took over the department's Spanish program last October. A "fantastic challenge" for her to finish her career with, she set out to shift the paradigm of what officers were expected to learn, designing the curriculum herself — even setting up a blog for officers to keep up with assignments and homework.

It was a jarring change: In January, the start of her first "academic year" at the head of the class, the room was packed with eager officers.

"Once they saw that it was difficult, the room started clearing out," she said, and it wasn't long before that dwindled down to the six officers on hand last Thursday.

The more comprehensive Spanish training is a straightforward but crucial step as police try to reach out to the county's Latinos, a relationship that has been strained by the department's participation in enforcing federal immigration warrants. In a concerted push to make officers — and the department overall — more approachable, the department's annual report was translated into Spanish this summer for the first time, and individual district stations have launched community outreach efforts in areas with high concentrations of Latino residents.

The police department offers salary bonuses as a way to encourage language training. Officers certified as advanced speakers get a $4,000 boost while basic certification nets $1,000.

Out of the 1,200-officer force, there are 57 certified Spanish speaking officers plus 20 civilians and 26 other officers certified in 10 other languages, according to police spokeswoman Blanca Kling.

The benefit goes both to the community and to officers, said Henry Montes, a member of Latino advisory groups for police Chief J. Thomas Manger and for County Executive Isiah Leggett. And while more Spanish-speaking officers is not a cure-all for the hampered relationship, he said, it is a step in the right direction.

"Whatever they do to improve that arrangement is a good thing…. Even thought folks may be able to understand some English and speak some English, to get across their complete ideas sometimes they prefer Spanish because it's just the language they're more comfortable with," he said, especially in intense, volatile situations, where instinct and reflex make emotions run high.

Add to that the frustration of having to wait for a translator can arrive to an urgent or powder-keg confrontation, said Detective Manuel Saponara of the county's domestic violence unit, one of the officers in Roman's class last week. Ten years into his tenure on the force, he said he needs Spanish just about every day.

"Sometimes you're wasting a lot of time trying to get somebody that does speak Spanish to the scene," he said. "And sometimes every minute counts."

All told, Roman has 35 officers in her classes, from detectives to traffic administrators to K-9 officers. By coming to the two-hour classes several times a week — and practicing outside of class — Roman is confident that officers can learn to speak, read and write Spanish within 18 months.

"The interest is growing. The officers that are out there in the field are realizing that the Latinos aren't going anywhere and that they need the help," she said.

If anything, the smaller class sizes are proof that those who stay are truly committed to learning all they can about the language and culture, she said, certain that the more rigorous approach has won over department brass.

"Ultimately, they've told me that I've surpassed everything they could have imagined," she said. "I think they still question it, especially with the budget the way it is, but they're starting to see results. I have an advanced class now and they're seeing that, if they make the opportunity available, that [officers] want to know more about our community. Because the class isn't just grammar and how to speak, but also how to understand the community: Where do we come from? Why do we speak the way we do? What are our roots? That level of comprehension can't be acquired in a four-hour class."