A year ago an article published by the Daily Mail highlighted how police forces in the UK were spending record amounts on foreign language interpreters, and how those levels of spending could have repercussions on frontline policing resources. However, could clever use of technology have a substantial impact on these costs?
The Daily Mail held that in a 12-month period, £25 million had been spent in England and Wales on translators alone, an increase of £4 million from the previous year. Gloucestershire Chief Constable Tim Brain was quoted as saying that forces were using their contingency reserves to pay for these bills. “Once they’ve spent out, there will have to be cutbacks and, in a service where over 80 per cent of our costs are staff, that inevitably will mean fewer police officers or staff.”It is no surprise, then, that technology solutions that could make an impact on these translation bills are now much sought after.First ContactOne such solution is First Contact by Lattice, a new company that exhibited at the BAPCO exhibition this year. As previously highlighted in this magazine, First Contact is a suite of software that can be used by call operators; front desk staff with touch screens; and officers on the street equipped with mobile data devices.The system integrates with telephone, computing, Internet and mobile technologies, and works as a system of multilingual, pre-configured dialogues. A police operator using First Contact can identify the language of a caller in a matter of seconds. The system enables the operator to ascertain the key facts of a given situation (e.g. a traffic accident, the number of cars involved, casualties etc) in order to deploy the suitable resources.At the front desk of a police station, First Contact allows an officer and a visitor to communicate via touch screens. Once a language is established, the officer can establish the reason for the visit – eg to report an assault – and also collect details such as description of the attacker and time/location of the incident. The system is being used by Northamptonshire Police in the mobile control room for this year’s F1 meeting at Silverstone.Officers on the street can deploy First Contact via their PDAs, and – for example – ask a Chinese motorist in their own language if they have drunk alcohol in the last 20 minutes. The officer can then go on to explain that he is authorised by law to ask the motorist to take a breathalyser test, in Chinese, and talk the motorist through the use of the device.Lattice Director Bob Carnell has seen much interest in First Contact since exhibiting at Bapco, especially from the larger forces. “One large force said that it could save half of its interpreters bill by using it. Every day they have interpreters called to police stations, and these professionals are often paid by the day, but often are only used for 15 minutes here and 20 minutes there. In many cases the officers know what the questions are going to be in advance, and with First Contact they could get that information straightaway. And in some cases they may not have to use an interpreter at all.”Carnell also highlights how First Contact could be used in the context of emergency call handlers. “When people who don’t speak English call the police, there is a time lag while the call handler tries to identify the language and engages an interpreter, so that a meaningful conversation can take place. In this scenario First Contact would enable the call handler and caller to engage straightaway instead of having to wait. And it is a lot less costly.”For the last three months call handlers at a major UK Police Force have been working with Lattice developing the different scripts necessary for the different scenarios, with and many police forces have subsequently been impressed with the development of the system.According to Carnell, interest in First Contact is increasing due to continued efforts by police forces to engage with ethnic communities that don’t speak English very well. Considering that this is a nation-wide issue that is not confined to one area of the UK, there could be scope for a unified approach along the lines championed in Sir Ronnie Flanagan’s recent report. Time will tell and while it is too soon for Carnell to be more specific, one of the world’s largest telecommunications companies has already expressed an interest to offer First Contact to all lines of business, in the UK and around the world. “In the police sector, it makes no sense to reinvent the wheel for each force, so we are talking about making the core system available to any force who wants to use it, tailored to their local needs. All they would do is to obtain the relevant access codes, from which point the call handlers could then use the software.”“Once deployed in this way with the UK police forces, then it could easily be expanded to the other emergency services, the MOD, local authorities and beyond that into the commercial sectors such as utilities, hotels and airlines.”Human interaction and technologyWhile scripted language technology such as Lattice’s certainly has huge potential, it does have limitations. How would a police officer on the street use First Contact, for example, when dealing with a lost child that cannot speak any English? It is here, in situations requiring specific answers, that “on demand” telephone interpreting services come into their own.Andrew Rowley, UK Sales Director of LangCommLive (part of the Transatlantic Translations Group), believes that telephone interpreting services – which offer immediacy – is a sector that will continue to grow as immigration into the UK continues apace. In practice the system works as follows: each police officer is issued with a credit-sized reference card with a code and a number. Once a language is established, the officer can call an interpreter – often based in the native language country – who is part of a pool of such interpreters available 24/7. The company has a pool of around 1,600 interpreters, all from professional backgrounds and with at least three years’ interpreting experience. They are all thoroughly vetted and trained, and all also sign a non-disclosure agreement.
As for costs, LangCommLive charges by the 100th of a second, which Rowley is quick to point out is not the industry standard, where to the nearest minute is closer to the norm. Bills are all itemised in a similar style to a standard telephone bill.“There are great advantages to telephone interpreting over face-to-face interpreting where you have to bring someone in and usually pay by the hour. Our rates are competitive and the charges don’t start until the interpreter has answered the call – and it doesn’t matter which language you call.” Rowley suggests a high quality interpreting service at an aggressive price per minute, providing cost per minute savings for the public sector is realistic – invaluable because of the cost pressures on public sector spending. “In sensitive situations I cannot say that the interpreter would not find the content of a conversation or interview disturbing, and if an interpreter was required for something quite unpleasant then we would suggest the services were booked in advance, so the interpreter could be briefed first.” Rowley has only recently started approaching the blue lights with LangCommLive, and has been surprised by the reaction. “Most people have never heard of such a service, or the fact you can dial into 156 different languages. We are happy for people to trial the service for a couple of months to gauge the benefits.”
Contact LangCommLive at enquiries@langcommlive.com
Visit www.langcommlive.com
Tel 0845 055 9756
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