Diez-Cuatro or 10-4 is written in such a way to aid persons that
encounter Spanish speakers daily while performing their jobs. Although it is
aimed toward law enforcement in many of the phrases and scenarios, it can be
used by other emergency personnel as well. For instance, one scenario goes
from a traffic stop to arrest and then to booking the arrestee into
corrections.
Another scenario refers to and accident, where medical questions come
into the scene which aid not only the law enforcement but medical and other
first responders as well. Then onto the emergency room to make sure the
necessary information that the medical personnel need is given.
There are alert words included that could save your life, because you
are at a disadvantage when dealing with a subject that means to harm you and
you can't understand what he is saying to his 'paisano' or countryman. The
included glossaries at the back of the contain many words that you use in
the legal and medical field.
Unlike most phrase books, this book starts out with the basics, such as
the alphabet, the eight parts of speech, (nouns, pronouns, adjectives, etc.)
to help the reader understand why we say the phrases the way we do. The
pronunciation is written out in italics for many of the phrases to aid the
beginner as he or she works to become more fluent in the Spanish language.
Charles Kimbril is a patrol sergeant with the Shelbyville Police Department in Shelbyville, Tennessee. He has a total of 16 years of law enforcement experience, both country and city. He served 42 months in the Canal Zone in Panama where he worked with Spanish speaking civilians and realized that learning a second language was easy and also fun. He took courses at the Canal Zone College which helped even more in leaning the basics of the Spanish language.
After entering law enforcement, he has taught classes to fellow officers at the Tennessee Law Enforcement Training Academy in Donelson, TN and worked as a translator on many cases in his local department.
Sgt. Kimbril is also a member of the El Centro Latino Coalition in the local community. The coalition's goal is to work with the Hispanic community and their relationship with the local government, local laws and what is needed to have a better understanding of both communities.