Officer Sues NYPD Over English-Only Policy

A Hispanic police officer who says she was reprimanded for answering a colleague in Spanish is suing the NYPD.

Officer Jessenia Guzman claims in her lawsuit that the department's English-only policy violates her civil and constitutional rights, according to The New York Post.

The 43-year-old officer, whose family is from the Dominican Republic, is a 16-year veteran of the New York Police Department.

The lawsuit states that a supervisor wrote Guzman up in 2013 after "a quick interaction with a co-worker in Spanish."

The co-worker asked, in Spanish, "What's up," and that she responded in Spanish, "Nothing, just chillin'. "

She says that interaction resulted in a black mark being submitted to her personnel file in the form of a command discipline memo.

Guzman, who says she didn't realize the rule existed, is suing for unspecified damages and claims the reprimand was both "discriminatory" and "humiliating."

An NYPD spokesman told the newspaper that with over 50 different languages spoken by employees of the department, the Office of Equal Employment Opportunity has established guidelines for members to speak English when they are conducting business, unless speaking a foreign language is necessary to perform his or her duties.