Translation budgets equal 1,000 officers (From Thisisdorset)

Translation budgets equal 1,000 officers

9:27am Monday 25th September 2006

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CASH-strapped Police forces battling with falling budgets to combat rising crime are spending millions on multilingual mediators to break down language barriers between cops and foreign felons.

The £20 million cost of providing interpreters for visiting villains and their victims across the country last year translates as enough to put an extra 1,000 policemen on the beat.

National police chiefs blame a surge in illegal immigration, asylum seekers and overseas workers for the rapid rise in translation costs.

While London and other major urban areas are the biggest spenders on interview room interpreters, Hampshire Constabulary, which forked out more than £500,000 for interpreters last year, is in the top six of a league table of the 32 English police authorities.

In contrast Dorset, with a £138,000 bill for foreign language translation service, comes in at 26th in the table.

Published figures show the Hampshire force, which covers the major ports and cities of Southampton and Portsmouth with large ethnic communities and a rural hinterland with increasing numbers of immigrant farm workers, spent £522,731 on interpreting the law for non-English speakers.

At the same time, budget cuts have led to re-organisation of police cover in the county, including fewer officers in the New Forest and reduced opening of police stations in New Milton, Ringwood and Fordingbridge.

New Forest District Council crime and disorder portfolio holder Cllr Goff Beck said: "It is a problem we will have to meet because of the number of foreign people coming to this country but there are other areas of policing where we would like money to be spent."

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