Workforce Language Services

On August 12th, the Workforce Language Services blog posted a link to an article describing the use of the Phraselator in NJ Police Departments.  Across the country, California police officers are piloting a similar device in San Mateo County.  The positively galactic sounding ECTACO Speechguard PD-5 provides a similar service for officers who are faced with a language barrier during traffic stops.

The town of Hillsborough isn’t your typical American melting pot, as its 10,000 residents have a median income of $260,000.  Nonetheless, the officer who has the device has used it four times within the past three weeks:

But approximately one-third of the community is Asian and a significant percentage of that populationspeaks a bare minimum of English. The percentage of the town’s Hispanic population is in the low single digits, but many of the domestic workers who tend to the residents’ mansions speak only Spanish.

As a result, the town’s police officers handle situations involving people who speak limited to no English on about one in 15 to 20 calls, Chinca said.

The most common of these situations for Chinca is “your basic everyday traffic stop,” he said.

Hillsborough’s Lieutenant says that if the first device works out well that more will be purchased for the department. To read more, click here.