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Regina Police Service looking to recruit more language interpreters

"We're always looking for more opportunities for interpreters. There's always a need for it especially with Regina's growing number of languages."

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As an inquiry officer at the Regina Police Services front desk, Constable Cindy Pigeon knows how important language is when serving the diverse population of Regina.

Fluent in ASL herself, she’s interpreted for officers on occasion, something she says is of paramount importance when it comes to reading someone their rights and warnings during an arrest, for example.

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But she’s also experienced situations where the language barrier has been a problem she can’t solve.

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“We had somebody come in the other day for an interview,” said Pigeon. “They wanted to make a report and through the investigation had to be interviewed.”

The man spoke Cebuano, a Filipino dialect not spoken by many, according to Pigeon, whose son is from the Cebu area in the Philippines.

“It was a real challenge because we actually had to have him come back because we couldn’t find a Cebuano interpreter at that time,” she said.

In more urgent cases, Pigeon said they would do whatever they needed to avoid sending the person home without filing their report or making their statement, but that more interpreters would be helpful to help those people as quickly as possible.

“A lot of times with immigrant women, they’re coming in and it’s a domestic assault or a sexual assault, things of that nature,” she said. “They’re afraid. They’re traumatized. You want somebody to be able to come as quickly as you can.”

To help improve communication between police and those dealing with police, the RPS is looking to recruit more on-call language interpreters. They put out a call on their website on Nov. 19.

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“We’re always looking for more opportunities for interpreters. There’s always a need for it, especially with Regina’s growing number of languages,” said RPS spokesperson Les Parker.

He said language interpreters are particularly important during an investigation.

“In an investigation there may be someone who has information and just trying to ask them the questions in a specific way requires some nuance with language,” said Parker. “When we’re asking something or they’re explaining something back to us, we just need to make sure that we’re on the same page.”

RPS spokesperson Elizabeth Popowich said the call for more interpreters is “adding to a body of work” they’ve been engaged in for years through their close partnership with the Open Door Society and other groups in the city.

For Pigeon, she’s hoping this newest recruitment initiative will double the number of on-call interpreters, and would like to see people who speak more unique dialects apply.

Applicants must speak English and be fluent in one or more non-English languages.

They must also have a clear criminal record and flexible availability, as interpreters will be contacted on an as-needed basis.

The RPS is in particular need of the following languages:

Amharic, Arabic, Bengali, Bilen, Burmese, Bhutanese, Cantonese, Farsi, Gujarati, Karen, Kunama, Mandarin, Nepali, Oromo, Pashto/Pushtu, Somali, Sundanese, Swahili, Tigrinya, Turkish and Ukrainian.

An application form and examples of the kind of language needed for interpretation can be found on their website, reginapolice.ca.

jackerman@postmedia.com

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