Multilingual UK police
The UK has a new multi lingual police force. The policy in the UK is now to deploy numerous police with a variety of languages. Their forces, particularly in London and other major cities, speak 14 languages, including Polish, Czech, Lithuanian and British Sign Language.
I personally know English police that have come to study in Poland. This is in response to the demographic changes. It has very little to do with political correctness, rather its more about money. Having to pay for translations and translators not only does not make good political sense, but economic sense, as the cost of translation is high; further, language misunderstandings can cause problems.
It is interesting the Police that I have seen come to Poland, learn Polish fairly well. They come here and are very nice, but like police are non-nonsense and rarely talk about learning Polish but just sit in a corner and study. Me, I am all fluff. I will talk about learning, Polish think about learning Polish, and then study for an hour.
If the cop on the street can respond to a call in the language of the people, then all the better What if there is a call for help and no one understand Polish. Now The British police are hiring native Polish speakers as well as many police learning Polish, for example on there own. The Polish population in the UK is exceptionally law abiding, as they are there just to work and police involvement is connected to more civil and community work.
A British police spokeswomen said, “The main function of the support officers will be to help residents and visitors to Cambridge shire, who are non-English speaking, to access police services, and communicate effectively with police officers and staff.”
It can be very difficult for deaf people, or even Polish speakers to communicate with officers and report crime. “Having officers who can assist in this way is a real positive step forward.”The full scope of languages the officers cover are: Polish, Russian, Lithuanian, Portuguese, Spanish, Latvian, Czech, Slovak, Bulgarian, Macedonian, Ukrainian, Urdu, Punjabi and British Sign Language.
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