Like many New York counties, Westchester is a diverse county More than a quarter of the county’s 970,000 residents are Hispanic or Latino, while almost seven percent are of Asian descent.
To better serve residents, witnesses, and crime victims in their native languages, Westchester County provided funding for local police departments to access on-demand interpreter services through LanguageLine®.
With the touch of a button, real-time interpreting enables officials to access an interpreter in more than 240 languages. No appointment is necessary.
The service is available in video and audio-only formats, enabling officers to communicate with the Deaf and Hard of Hearing, as well.
LanguageLine provides on-demand interpreting through a team of more than 20,000 professional interpreters.
Improving Access for Non and Limited English Speakers
According to statistics, language barriers can be a strong disincentive for crime victims or witnesses to approach law enforcement for assistance. Non-English speakers commonly rely on friends of family members to provide interpretation, but this informal process can be unwieldy and impractical and inaccurate, especially when reporting a crime.
WATCH: How Video Interpreting Is Leading to Improvements in Community Policing
“Effective law enforcement is important to maintaining safe and secure communities across Westchester,” District Attorney Miriam Rocah said. “Part of that is ensuring that our police departments and prosecutors are able to fully engage and communicate with all residents of all backgrounds. This generous support from the County will enable police to build better trust with immigrants and others with limited English skills, which will in turn help prevent crime and make our communities stronger and safer.”
Officials said that adopting mobile interpreting is an extension of the departments’ duty to protect residents.
“If protecting residents means better communicating with them in their native language, we want to do that,” Westchester County Executive George Latimer said. “It is difficult for police departments to have officers who speak each language spoken in Westchester County. Access to LanguageLine enables the officers and the residents to communicate in their native language when interacting with the local police departments. The Westchester County Department of Public Safety has long used LanguageLine and it has proven to be very successful.”
Under the initiative, the district attorney’s office and any local police department in need of interpretation services in any language will contact the Westchester County Department of Public Safety.
READ MORE: Police Use Video Interpreter App to Communicate
The communications unit connects the department with a LanguageLine interpreter. This enables all residents to receive immediate interpretation services and be able to communicate with the police in the language in which they are most comfortable.
What They’re Saying:
Westchester County Public Safety Commissioner Thomas A. Gleason: “The County Police is fortunate to have multiple officers who speak a second language, and we make them available often to assist municipal police departments in Westchester with incidents and investigations.
“LanguageLine is also an invaluable service that we utilize to communicate promptly and effectively with persons who have been a victim of a crime or have a need for police assistance. A language barrier should never prevent anyone from getting the help or service they need.”
President of the Westchester County Chiefs of Police Association & Scarsdale Chief of Police Andy Matturro: “The goal of every Westchester County police officer is to meet the needs of the communities we serve and to make continuing improvements to the services we provide. Enhancing access to all of our officers with translation services through LanguageLine in real-time will help us get details from crime victims and witnesses that much faster, which can allow us to solve cases and help victims.”
Asian American Advisory Board Co-Chair Marjorie Hsu: “I applaud Westchester County for providing on-demand interpreters through LanguageLine to our local police departments. Asian Americans are the fastest growing demographic in New York and the U.S. Language access has long been a significant challenge for new immigrants. There are 2,300 living languages in Asia, and seven major dialects of the Chinese language. Providing our public safety staff with language assistance will greatly improve Asian American new immigrants’ sense of security and assimilation in Westchester.”
Islamic Center of New Rochelle Imam Mohammed Shaffieq Chace: “Being able to speak in your native language — whether it’s Hindi, Urdu, Arabic or another — will greatly help people that need to interact with the police. An interpreter in real-time takes the burden off of the victim seeking support from authorities, and instead helps them to share their experience in a more direct way with less pressure and stress.”
Community Resource Center Executive Director Jirandy Martinez, MPA: “This is a wonderful and much needed addition to our police departments. Non-English speakers will have an easier time expressing themselves and their concerns to law enforcement. It will not only improve communications between the groups but can also have a positive impact on relationships within the community.”
Thomas H. Slater Center Haitian Resource Center Director Myrlene Chauvette: “The priority for the victim of a crime should be to get to the police and report the situation as soon as possible, and not to waste time finding a relative or friend who can accompany them to translate the circumstances because they are not fluent English speakers. This is a great enhancement to all Westchester residents.”
OCA-Asian Pacific American Advocates Vice President of the Hudson Valley Chapter Bob Chao: “This is a major improvement to the way that law enforcement works with non-English speaking residents. It can help cases to come together more quickly, better supporting victims and moving the process closer to justice.”
LanguageLine Can Help
LanguageLine has been the world leader in innovative language-access solutions since 1982. The company sets the global standard for phone, video, and onsite interpreting, as well as translation of the written word. LanguageLine is trusted by more than 30,000 clients to enable communication with the limited English proficient, Deaf, and Hard of Hearing communities. LanguageLine provides the industry’s fastest and most dependable access to more than 35,000 professional linguists in 290-plus languages — 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year. Please do not hesitate to contact us.
