Leicestershire police pay out £1.2m for interpreters in three years
Police have paid £1.2 million for interpreters in the past three years.
Senior officers said speakers of about 50 languages have been called upon at "huge expense" to communicate with foreign suspects, witnesses and victims.
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Leicestershire police pay out £1.2m for interpreters
The annual cost of providing translators has risen from more than £370,000 in the year 2007 -08 to nearly £430,000 last year.
Officers said the increase could be partly explained by a rise in the number of eastern European people living in Leicestershire in recent years.
In the past two years, Polish translators have been second only to Gujarati as the most often called upon by Leicestershire officers. They were followed, in order, by Punjabi, Romanian and Lithuanian.
Supt Steve Harrod, head of Leicestershire Constabulary's criminal justice department, said it was a huge but necessary expense.
He said: "Clearly, it would be completely unfair if we were bringing in people and speaking to them in English and expecting them to come up with explanations for their actions without being able to understand us.
"It's absolutely right that suspects have the same access to their rights as someone who is English-speaking.
"The budget for interpreters is not just used for interviewing suspects.
"It may also be used for foreign nationals who have witnessed an offence, or for when officers need to go to a foreign country where these people live in order to speak to them.
"It's a huge expense – it's an awful lot of money I would rather we didn't have to spend.
"But it's not just a Leicestershire problem, it's a national problem."
He said police forces drew up their own contracts with external translation consultants.
However, Supt Harrod said forces around the country were now starting talks with the Home Office about using a less expensive, centralised system for interpreters.
Current costs come entirely from the force budget. There is no separate cash from central Government.
Mr Harrod said he would not be surprised if the force encountered fewer Polish speakers this year as many economic migrants had left Britain due to the recession.
"I suspect Polish will come somewhere in the bottom end of our top 10 languages in a year's time," he said.
Barrie Roper, chairman of Leicestershire Police Authority, said: "There has been an increase in expenditure, but in delivering an effective and efficient police service it's an unavoidable cost because we have to treat everyone fairly."
One police officer, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said: "It's a difficult subject because people must be able to have their rights explained to them.
"Natural justice dictates that, let alone legislation."
Some of the less common languages encountered by officers in Leicestershire included Amharic and Tigrinya, which are spoken in Ethiopia, and Turkish.
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by Amber, Cambridge
Friday, September 03 2010, 9:00AM
“Dear Ree
well you have certainly shown just how ignorant you are to everyone. I have no doubt that you yourself, who speaks English, would struggle to understand English legalese. How would you therefore expect someone who speaks none or indeed just very basic English not only to understand a completely different judicial set up to the one that they have come from but also the legalese that goes with it? Ignorance is bliss, isn't it?”
by Marc, Manchester
Thursday, September 02 2010, 3:21PM
“I am really impressed by the comments by some of the people here.
They recognise that migrants pay tax, they recognise that ANY foreign national could be wrongly convicted if a small detail of their defence slips through the net to an untrained non-interpreter. They also see that instead of the UK dragging its knuckles back into the dark ages, we should set an example to other nations that don't have an interpreting system.
The antics of Police forces and other public agencies in trying to flog off their translation and interpreting services to the cheapest bidder risks the increasing use of poor non-interpreters who are considered fit for purpose by commercial companies whose interest it is in to use such persons. This risks a great miscarriage of justice at some point, and if it happened on a major case, it would end up costing a great deal more than any saving that could be made.
Language, unlike medicine and law, is a field where the suppliers to our public services can get away with providing unqualified persons and no-one does a thing. It is a disgrace and is under threat of becoming commonplace after the Ministry of Justice announced in August that it would outsource from 2011. If that outsourcing is handled badly, we are in for a plethora of miscarriages of justice.
You have to remember: agencies, as opposed to properly-trained interpreters, pick their freelancers based not on understanding their levels of ability, because they can't. They're business people. They are programmed to make money and in order to make the maximum profit, they are unlikely to use the best professionals who charge fair rates based on their skills and experience.
Not everyone who speaks some of a language is an interpreter - which is a common misconception. It is no different to being able to understand basic legal issues off watching television to being a real solicitor, or operating a car on a basic level as opposed to being a F1 driver.
Interpreters who are trained are trained and examined by trained linguists and the exams are set and marked by trained linguists.
One thing I must point out is that although I support many of the comments made by Superintendent Harrod, he is incorrect in saying there is no central national database: there is. If it is the case that Leicestershire Police use an external supplier, it is worth considering whether that use is really less expensive than using independent, registered freelance interpreters directly.
I was told that in the east Midlands, a private company was used by the Police so if it has cost a large sum of money, it is worth considering whether it was a good idea or not to stop using the NRPSI - the national database that is mentioned - and use a commercial firm.
Oh, by the way, I am an NRPSI-registered public service interpreter in Spanish and Portuguese.
And I was born and brought up in Manchester ... ENGLAND.
The attitude towards the spending of any money on language services in this country shocks me, it really is depressing. The people who benefit from it are ALL of us, including UK nationals.”
by david, leics
Saturday, August 21 2010, 9:06PM
“Ah well - another consequence of the "New Labour" government - RIP”
by Daniel, Leicester
Saturday, August 21 2010, 9:10AM
“Red, Leicester - god your naivety is off the scales its actually quite sweet I wish I could look at life through the eyes of child.
Do you not know J,Leic 46.2% of statistics are just made up! get real.”
by Red, Leicester
Friday, August 20 2010, 11:12PM
“Don't bother j. - Daniel obviously doesn't know Leicester as well as he thinks he does and chooses only to see what he wants to see. Hordes of "illegals" trying to make his life a misery. Let him live in his awful world. I'll live in mine, one of colour, difference and diversity. It's much more interesting.”