VII Международная студенческая научная конференция Студенческий научный форум - 2015

The British police officer – sometimes called the “bobby” after Sir Robert Peel, the founder of the police force – is well-known figure to everybody, who sees British films. And many people primarily think of police officers as the people who hand out tickets and citations for legal infractions. However, this job is actually much more complex. Police officers work to prevent lawbreaking by patrolling, offering youth education, and coordinating community efforts like neighborhood watch associations. They also respond to complaints ranging from noise complaints to emergency calls for help, they investigate crimes, collecting evidence and arresting people of interest in criminal cases. Many police officers also testify in court at some point.

In many communities, active police officers also assist with public education, visit schools, talk with students, and they network with community organizations with law enforcement goals. Many police activities are aimed at connecting members of law enforcement and regular citizens. In order to foster positive relationships between the police and the people they work with police officers should also possess communicative skills.

In general, requirements for policemen include citizenship, age of at least 21 years old and some specific physical qualifications. Applicants may have to pass physical exams of vision, hearing, strength, and agility, as well as competitive written exams. Previous work or military experience is often seen as a plus. Candidates typically go through a series of interviews and may be asked to take lie detector and drug tests. A felony conviction may disqualify a candidate. A policeman must have at least a high school education or GED and be a graduate of his agency’s training academy. Knowledge of a foreign language is an asset in many federal agencies and in certain geographical regions.

Among important qualities for police officers are leadership skills, physical strength, but also communication skills because police play many roles in our communities. They respond to crime scenes and protect our schools. They host public awareness seminars and check on the elderly. Policemen must be able to speak with people when gathering facts about a crime and to express details about a given incident in writing.

Police departments are increasingly focusing on community policing, which involves serving the public. Community policing requires traits such as compassion, empathy and courtesy and those roles require interaction with diverse groups, a willingness to help others, strong problem-solving skills and the ability to create a sense of partnership. With the cultural diversity that exists today, the ability to understand and communicate in other languages is a definite skill that should be listed on a police officer application. In urban police departments and federal agencies, knowing how to speak a foreign language is always considered a plus as these skills also include any bilingual abilities, involvement in community programs or working with special needs groups, such as immigrants, for example.

Learning a second language is also highly recommended. For example, on November 29, 2013 the Headquarters of the Nigerian Police hosted a ceremony of certificates of completion of training in French followed by officers of the Peacekeeping Special Service. 40 police officers of this unit, ranging from police officers to police commissioners followed a 6 months’ training in French language (oral and written), organized with the support of the Security Service of the Embassy of France [2]. The main objective of this operation was to train police officers in French language to enable them to be more independent and effective in international missions of peacekeeping, especially in French speaking countries, the main recipients of United Nations peacekeeping operations.

It is an interesting fact that police across Shropshire and Mid Wales have spent more than £2.5 million on foreign language interpreters over the past five years, according to new figures. The highest spend was in 2009/10 at £136,749.34, while costs rose again in 2013/14 to £100,855.19 [3].The money has been spent helping prisoners in custody and providing support for victims, translations have been made for people speaking Polish, Romanian and Dutch. Since April 2014, the top six language translation that West Mercia Police has paid for are Polish, Romanian, Lithuanian, Sylheti, Russian and Dutch.

The Human Rights Act only requires translation if someone is arrested or charged with a criminal offence. But Chloe Drinkwater, spokeswoman for West Mercia Police, declared: "If an officer finds that they are unable to communicate effectively with a person whether they be a witness, under arrest or having attended voluntarily then they will call on the services of a translator. This can either be over the telephone using the services of 'Languageline', or in person using the services of 'NRPSI'" [1]. Therefore law enforcement agencies have to hire special multilingual staff or interpreters.

All these facts make clear that police officers also must be properly and clearly able to overcome the language barrier which can hinder their efficacy. It is known that learning foreign languages is a long process, but law enforcement agents who stumble upon numerous situations with foreign-language speakers, must act immediately. Language barriers can really become frustrating in everyday interactions with foreign speakers. You want to help people, but not being able to communicate leads to misinterpretations. For this reason, both modern technology and more traditional methods can help you overcome language barriers.

At first, language barriers prevent people from understanding descriptions of places, feelings, people or objects. Body language can help you understand the basic meaning of others' speech. For example, when you don't want to accept something, wave your hand or make an "X" sign with your arms. When the conversation revolves around objects, such as when police officers want to see someone's ID or passport, they can show another passport or ID card and point at the foreign-language speaker.

The second method is visual aid. When you cannot express yourself with spoken or body language, draw what you have to say. You only need pencil and paper, as well as basic drawing skills to make foreign-language speakers understand. For instance, when you need to go to a train station, you can draw a train carriage and a station structure. Foreign-language speakers can also use the same method to reply.

And finally you can appeal to modern technology that allows you to use electronic interpreters, which are either separate devices, about the size of a cellphone or software you can install on smart phones. Their operation is simple; you have to set the input language, talk clearly to the device and then select the translation. They are easy to carry and are not as expensive as professional interpreters. However, devices cannot interpret body language or signs. In addition, if you don't understand what language your interlocutor is speaking, you can't set the input language. This is the reason why law enforcement agencies, courts of law and other public services employ interpreters to fully clarify the foreign-language speaker's remarks, instead of just understanding the general meaning. Interpreters can either be present during a conversation or participate via the phone, in which case they may miss important elements of the foreign-language speaker's body language.

To sum up, it can be said that requirements for police officers include not only physical skills and knowledge of the law, but also communicative skills and foreign language competence. Policemen must be able to find a common language with different kinds of people, even if they have to speak a foreign language. Language barriers make police officers less effective in their work, especially in community policing. There are different possibilities to overcome language barriers and to make the mutual understanding possible but the most effective and the least expensive way is to learn foreign languages.

REFERENCES

1. Bharathi A. Venkatraman. Lost in Translation Limited English Proficient Populations and the Police // The Police Chief. Vol. 73. № 4. April 2006.
2. French language training for police officers involved in UN Peacekeeping Operations [Электронныйресурс] Режимдоступа: http://www.ambafrance-ng.org/French-language-training-for
3. Revealed: Police spend £2m on interpreters to break language barrier // Shropshire Star. November, 2014.

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