NCJ Number
167404
Journal
Law Enforcement Quarterly Dated: (August-October 1996) Pages: 37-38
Date Published
1996
Length
2 pages
Annotation
This article describes the San Diego Police Department's development of a program that uses volunteer translators to assist police officers in communicating with non-English-speaking people.
Abstract
Among San Diego County's more than 2 million inhabitants, 24 languages are spoken, not including obscure languages and dialects. The Immigration and Naturalization Service reported in 1993 that some 17,000 legal immigrants came to live in San Diego. The number of illegal immigrants is disputed, but at least tens of thousands of people with limited English skills arrive in or pass through the county each year. This presents a significant communication problem for police. In an effort to address this problem, a program was initiated 6 months ago to train and use volunteer interpreters. Phase one of the program involved designing the training for volunteers. The training focused on preparing volunteers to assist police in specific tasks. The program will allow the department to have a trained translator after only 20 to 24 hours of instruction. Phase two, which is about to begin, involves program development. Program developers are in the process of identifying those members of the department's existing Volunteer Services who speak more than one language. Planners also have a list of more than 900 city employees who have been identified as being multilingual. The third group of volunteers will come from the community and will give the department a community-based translation program. Training volunteers should start in September, with the first group of translators scheduled to begin work a week later. The plan is to have 100 interpreters by the end of the year.