Interpreters on the Phone to Fight Crime

The New Zealand service Crimestoppers, a British-owned hotline that allows individuals to report crimes, has new plans to offer callers access to interpreters over the phone.

Since the institution of the service in October, individuals who call the Crimestoppers number can send anonymous reports to the police for investigation and action. But currently, without access to interpreters on the phone line, the service is only available for English speakers.

Now, the New Zealand Times reports, Crimestoppers wants to include interpreters on the phone calls to expand the service to a wider, more diverse audience.

Interpreters Over the Phone?

Telephonic interpreting can be a convenient solution for those conducting multilingual conversations with someone far away.

Having interpreters on the phone can help facilitate international conversations or conference calls — especially in business or government interpreting.

New Zealand’s government offices already use a “language line” — a telephonic interpreting system for exclusive use by government staff members and their clients. By calling a particular agency and asking for your language, you can reach an interpreter on the phone within a few minutes.

Now Pansy Wong, the Minister of Ethnic Affairs, is looking into a way of incorporating this service into the Crimestoppers network. This could make interpreters on the phone available to laypeople who need to report a crime.

Although English is the most widely spoken language in New Zealand, it is one of two official languages. The other is Maori, the language of the indigenous Maori people that is spoken by 4 percent of the population.

Currently, Crimestoppers has no available interpreters by phone for Maori or other commonly spoken languages, including  Samoan, French and Hindi.

Interpreting to Help Fight Crime

The governmental language line has been made public once before, during a nationwide investigation into the whereabouts of a missing child. The hotline for anyone with information was linked to the interpreter phone number.

If Crimestoppers is successful in linking its own hotline with interpreters, the phone service will be available for any anonymous crime reports, not only national investigations.

Crimestoppers is often used for charges of consumer fraud, such as stolen information during internet purchases, counterfeit prizes and fake or washed checks and money orders.

The service also offers an Integrity Line for companies, which allows employees to make anonymous reports about workplace misconduct, harrassment or fraud.

If the language line is included in future services, it will be useful for more than merely government interpreting. Callers will be able to talk with interpreters on the phone in any language and report the crimes they encounter.