Interpretation cards to help police break the language barri

[falkor]

Tuesday, October 21, 2008, 08:15

POCKET-SIZED cards are being issued to police to help them communicate with non-English speaking victims of crime.
Derby Community Safety Partnership has supplied police officers in the city with 25 sets of 1,000 picture cards.
The partnership has spent £180 on the cards and they are being used by officers throughout the city.
The cards, called PocketComms, include pictures that relate to everyday items or actions and were designed by former soldier Jim Wyatt, who served in Afghanistan.
They include cartoon-style drawings which will show, for example, a car reversing into a person to enable the victim to tell the police immediately what has happened to them.

Nick Pitt, crime reduction manager at the partnership, said: "The community safety partnership has a wide remit across the city to make communities safer and stronger.
"An important part of our work is around community cohesion – ensuring that people from the diverse range of cultures and backgrounds feel safe and are able to contribute to the overall wellbeing of their communities.
"Language can be a very restricting barrier, particularly to the work of police officers. The PocketComms will support them in their work with witnesses and victims who do not speak English.
"We are confident that this will be a cost-effective way of breaking down language barriers that can prevent people communicating with the police at stressful times."
Last year, Derbyshire police dealt with people speaking 44 languages and officers had to call on interpreters 1,088 times.

Earlier this year, the Evening Telegraph reported that the force had identified 128 languages and dialects being spoken in the county.
It is hoped the cards, which are also being used in Sussex and Bognor Regis, will help police speed up communication with victims.
Chief Inspector Gary Parkin, is in charge of community safety for the Derbyshire force.

He said: "PocketComms cards are already popular with people travelling abroad.
"They will be a useful tool for our officers and community support officers who need to communicate quickly and efficiently with people who have witnessed an incident or who are victims of a crime.
"It is vital, for instance, that information about a robbery suspect is circulated quickly to officers on the ground so that an early arrest can be made and important forensic evidence is secured.

Hi Folks,

A quick update....

We are excited to announce the addition of our latest version to the PocketComms family, Police/PCSO PocketComms. Created in partnership with, and now officially endorsed for use by the West Midlands Police, it contains over 1,000 specifically drawn Police related pictures to help an officer start the communications process and begin to gather evidence. It also includes braille and sign language, 70 language identifiers, 185 country flags and names, a cultural aide memoir and is supplied with a duty belt pouch.

A 10% PCSO.com discount is available, simply enter PCSO01(ending in zero one) when Prompted

More information can be found at our website at www.pocketcomms.com
or by contacting me directly at james.wy@pocketcomms.com or +44 (0) 845 6029869

PoGs

Hertfordshire PCSO's Commended for saving Pregnant Woman
Two Hertfordshire police have been awarded a Commendation after using Pocketcomms to save a pregnant woman

TWO Police Community Support Officers were given a commendation today, for their quick intervention when a pregnant woman fell critically ill in a supermarket.
The Stevenage-based officers, one of whom had only been on the job for three months, rushed to help when the woman collapsed in a Tesco’s store in the town on August 12.
The situation was complicated because the woman didn’t appear pregnant at first glance and didn’t speak any English.

The officers, PCSO Chris Watson and newly-appointed Jason Hart quickly made her as comfortable as possible and then used a special piece of equipment to communicate with her.
Chris said: "We were in the store when we saw a crowd of people gathering. When we walked over, we saw the woman on the floor apparently having a fit. We immediately called for an ambulance and started giving first aid.
"The lady couldn't speak any English and it wasn't immediately apparent she was pregnant. We carry a book of picture cards for use in exactly this situation. It's called a 'Pocket Comms' and is a series of images that depict different pictures on many subjects such as sickness symptoms or flags to show nationality.
"She was able to point at a picture of a pregnant woman and that information proved invaluable in this critical situation as we were able to pass that onto the ambulance crew.
"Thankfully, she recovered after being taken to hospital and actually had the baby the following day and both are doing fine. Both Jason and I are both delighted to get this commendation but at the end of the day, we were just doing our job. We are really pleased that this situation had a happy ending."

Paramedic Karen Nixon, who was first at the scene, praised the officers, saying: “Chris and Jason did a terrific job assisting me to treat and stabilise the patient. They also looked after her relatives until the arrival of my colleagues. They both went above and beyond and were both extremely kind and helpful throughout.”
Stevenage Chief Inspector Richard Liversidge said: “I am very proud of our PCSOs' efforts during this incident, which must have been particularly traumatic for the lady.
“This incident demonstrates the close working relationship between the Stevenage Neighbourhood Policing Team, the East of England Ambulance Service and other Town Centre partners such as Shopwatch. I am pleased their hard work and skills have been recognised in this way.”
One of the Trust's Communications Managers Gary Sanderson, who arranged the presentation said: “It is always pleasing to receive such a nice story.
“Karen was very grateful indeed for the police officers' contribution. Both the police and paramedics were able to use their multi-lingual phrase books to communicate with the woman and her relatives as they were from Hungary.”
Gary added: “They both thoroughly deserve their commendations and on behalf of our trust, well done.”

For further information, please contact Nikki Hall, Senior Press & PR officer, in Corporate Communication on 01438 757110.

http://pocketcomms.co.uk/