The Associated Press
ANDERSON, Ind. (AP) -- Faced with a growing number of people who speak Spanish and other languages, Anderson police have turned to a translating service for help.
For the past two weeks, Sgt. Paul Boulware said officers have been testing the service by running mock situations with officers and dispatchers to get familiar with it.
Calls to Language Line Services can either be made through the police dispatch center or in the field through cellular telephones. With one cell phone, an officer can teleconference with another phone to tap into the translation services, Boulware said.
Officers will be able to access the Monterey, Calif.-based company while in the middle of a situation, as well as on their way to one.
“So we’re going to be able to go to calls, knowing a lot more information than what we knew before,” Boulware said.
Although Language Line provides translations for up to 150 languages, Boulware said 99 percent of the time Anderson police will use Spanish-speaking translators.
The language service’s basic fee is $50 per month and gives the department located about 30 miles northeast of Indianapolis, some built-in interpreter time.
Boulware said officers have been taught some emergency Spanish, which would help them tell a caller not to hang up while they get an interpreter.
Officer Keith Gaskill, whose beat is in a largely Latino area of Anderson, said some might argue that if people are in America, they should learn to speak English.
“Reality is, people who are here that speak Spanish, they’re going to speak Spanish and they deserve the same public services that everybody else does,” he said.