Two years ago this month, we enhanced our outreach to the Hispanic community in the U.S.—and beyond—by launching a Spanish-language webpage on www.fbi.gov.
Our goal—to help educate members of the Hispanic community about the FBI’s many roles and responsibilities in fighting crime…to enlist more support in locating fugitives and gathering tips on criminal activity…and to provide valuable information on how to keep from becoming a victim of fraud or other crimes.
So far, the site has been viewed more than 160,000 times. More importantly, by strategically syndicating content from the webpage to various online Spanish-language media outlets in the U.S., our regular stream of articles tailored to Hispanics reached a combined audience of more than 70 million people during 2012 alone.
Over the past two years, we have posted stories on a variety of topics of interest to the Hispanic community…as well as to the public at large. For example:
- In our latest article, we discussed human trafficking (January is National Slavery and Human Trafficking Prevention Month) with a focus on the assistance we offer to human trafficking victims.
- Last April, we warned about the increasing sophistication of the so-called “grandparent scam,” in which criminals can—using the Internet and social media sites—uncover personal information about their targets, which makes the scam so much more believable.
- Last January, we warned people about new malware being delivered via e-mail that made it possible for criminals to steal money electronically from victims’ bank accounts.
- And in March 2011, we provided details on a California con man who ran a Ponzi scheme and a distressed homeowners scam, both specifically targeting members of the Hispanic community in Los Angeles.
Over the past 24 months, we’ve also run articles covering topics such as gangs and gang violence, hate crimes, telemarketing fraud, mortgage and health care fraud, cyber crime, sextortion, child prostitution, ATM skimming, identity theft, and the FBI Child ID app.
Along with our Spanish-language webpage, FBI.gov provides some additional Spanish content as well, including a number of posters on our Most Wanted fugitives page, key forms, and a translation of the authorized language on the FBI’s Anti-Piracy Warning Seal.
Our Spanish webpage is just one example of how we reach out to the Hispanic community. Our Community Relations Unit at FBI Headquarters—which directs the Bureau’s overall outreach efforts—oversees the work of our community outreach specialists in FBI field offices across the country. Our specialists interact at the local level with leaders, groups, and others in the Hispanic community, sharing information and engaging in meaningful dialogue. They also facilitate the participation of Hispanics in ourCitizens Academy and CREST programs as well as our Director’s Community Leadership Awards.
“Our outreach efforts are all about connecting with communities to make sure they know who we are and how we can help,” says Paul Geiger, chief of our Community Relations Unit. “We want to be better at our job and keep the public safer. The Spanish-language webpage certainly helps do that.”
Stay tuned for more interesting and useful content on FBI en español during 2013.
Resource:
- FBI en español
