Audit Says Police Fall Short in Providing Interpreters

A federal review has found the New York Police Department often fails to
ensure that non-English speaking New Yorkers have access to certified
interpreters when seeking their assistance. A Staten Island Legal Services client is featured in a November 18th New York Times article about the 10-month review, which concluded that the department is not fully complying
with federal civil rights laws and must do more to provide non-English
speakers with “meaningful access to its services.”

From the NYT article:

When Esther Jimenez called the police to her Staten Island home last
year, she showed them the scratches on her arm. She told them that her
husband had attacked her in front of their children. He had pushed her
into a wall, she said, and knocked their youngest child from her arms.

But the officers could not understand: She spoke only Spanish. They spoke English.

According to New York Police Department
protocol, the officers should have gotten an interpreter for her, but
Ms. Jimenez said they did not. Lawyers at Staten Island Legal Services,
who represented Ms. Jimenez, 27, said the police never filed a report
after the visit.

A new federal review into how police interact with the city’s vast
immigrant population suggests that Ms. Jimenez’s experience was not
unusual. The review, by the Justice Department’s Office for Civil
Rights, found the department often fails to ensure that New Yorkers who
do not speak English have critical access to certified interpreters when
seeking police assistance.

Read the rest of the story at www.NewYorkTimes.com.