NCJ Number
138920
Journal
Law and Order Volume: 40 Issue: 9 Dated: (September 1992) Pages: 99-102
Date Published
1992
Length
4 pages
Annotation
This article describes the various techniques and procedures police departments have used to facilitate police communication with non-English-speaking persons in the course of police duties.
Abstract
In Rockport, Texas, with a population of 6,500 and a few hundred Vietnamese and Laotians, the police rely on a game warden who learned Vietnamese in the military and the pastor of the local Vietnamese church. Police have the additional problem of overcoming the fear of police cultivated by police brutality in their native country. In Lake Havasu City, Arizona, which has a large number of Spanish-speaking residents, some officers have enrolled in language courses at the local community college. Flagstaff, Arizona, has large numbers of Mexican-Americans who speak only Spanish and some Native Americans who speak only Hopi or Navajo. One method the Flagstaff Police Department uses to deal with non-English-speaking persons is the AT and T Language Line Services. This service offers interpreters in some 140 languages. If a police dispatcher cannot understand a call, the dispatcher can roll it over to the language line, and an interpreter will come on. Also, a conference call can be made to facilitate communication with non- English-speaking persons in the station house. Flagstaff recently developed with Coconino County Community College a course in Spanish for police officers. Included in the curriculum are key words and phrases an officer needs in interaction with Spanish-speaking individuals.