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Units can turn phrases essential to police duty into 9 foreign languages
By Rick Armon
Beacon Journal staff writer
Published on Monday, Nov 10, 2008
For Sagamore Hills Township police officer Dan Rice, the situation was a nightmare.
Inside the bar, a man lay on the floor drifting in and out of consciousness.
Outside, officers tried to communicate with four Hispanic suspects accused of assaulting him. Three didn't speak English.
''We didn't understand them and they didn't know what's going on,'' Rice said, recalling the incident last year. ''The one who spoke English was talking to the other guys and we had no idea what he was saying.''
After the four were arrested, the officers had to turn to the Internet to translate the Miranda rights into Spanish.
''It's just a nightmare when you don't have the communication, especially when you have serious charges,'' Rice said.
Police in Summit County will soon have a new tool to help them deal with such frustrating and confusing situations — a high-tech, hand-held language translator. The county Emergency Management Agency has bought 36 SpeechGuards for
$29,800 to hand out to local law enforcement agencies.
The device works like this: You speak English and your words are interpreted aloud into one of nine pre-programmed languages.
Of course, it doesn't interpret everything verbatim like the futuristic — and made-up — ''Universal Translator'' in Star Trek.
The SpeechGuard comes with more than 3,000 programmed phrases considered most handy for authorities, such as asking for a driver's license or telling someone to put his hands up. (Authorities also can manually select a phrase instead of speaking it.)
There's even a video screen that shows your comment written in the foreign tongue, whether that's Spanish, Arabic, Russian, Mandarin Chinese, Polish, Vietnamese, Korean, Japanese or Farsi.
A drawback is that it translates English, but not the foreign language back into English, meaning human interpreters won't become obsolete anytime soon.
More than 360 law enforcement agencies — including the Drug Enforcement Administration, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and Ohio State Highway Patrol — are using the device, built by Ectaco, a Long Island, N.Y., company that makes hand-held electronic dictionaries and translators.
The SpeechGuard was designed for the military to communicate with Iraqis, but publicity surrounding the device sparked interest from law enforcement in the U.S.
''I had to tell everybody that we didn't have anything for them,'' said Tim Houston, company director of business development.
Because of the demand, Ectaco convened a group of U.S. law enforcement officials and created a SpeechGuard for police. It's been available for about four years.
The device has been helpful for authorities in areas with large immigrant populations, particularly those who speak Spanish. Only about 6 percent of Ohioans speak a language other than English at home, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
''It would be something we could use every now and then,'' Macedonia Police Chief Jon Golden said.
But police and others warn that the device isn't perfect. For example, authorities still can't understand the suspect or victim, although the SpeechGuard also is designed to ask plenty of ''Yes or no'' questions.
Ohio troopers have reported that it would be more handy if the SpeechGuard also translated other languages into English so there was some two-way communication.
Isabel Framer, a Copley Township resident and chair of the National Association of Judiciary Interpreters and Translators, said the device could be useful for basic commands and low-stress situations. It also could eliminate the potential for mispronouncing an order.
''It's very dangerous if the officer doesn't pronounce the command correctly,'' she said.
The SpeechGuard also could put some non-English speaking people more at ease when dealing with police, said Rice, an acting sergeant in Sagamore Hills.
''I can see a lot of good things that could come out of this,'' he said.
For information about Ectaco, go to http://www.ectaco.com/.
Rick Armon can be reached at 330-996-3569 or rarmon@thebeaconjournal.com.
For Sagamore Hills Township police officer Dan Rice, the situation was a nightmare.
Get the full article here.
Comments
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Akron, OH
Posted 03:59 AM, 11/10/2008
Will Republicans whine when these are challenged in court?
Posted 09:05 AM, 11/10/2008
Will the democrats buy more of these instead of teaching a 2nd language?
Posted 09:19 AM, 11/10/2008
My question here is why am I paying taxes to buy a translator at all? If these folks can't speak english they are probably illegal and ICE should be called immediately to translate and deport if so. Now that Phoenix has passed the E-Verify they are scattering elsewhere in the U.S. and taking American jobs.
With the unemployed at the highest rate in years why are they still here and working? I do know for a fact that illegals are working jobs in Phoenix making $20.00 an hour at some places. Do you make $20.00 an hour? I would do anything to feed my kids, as most American's would, so those farm jobs that are here, the cleaning jobs, etc could be feeding an American's family right now.
Can you afford a $225.000.00 home? Some of the illegal's can and do. So many American's are getting foreclosed on for lack of a job, why are there any illegal's here at all?
Time to wake up Ohio and implement the E- Verify program before it is too late. I do not object to the folks that have immigrated legally, to them I say welcome and good luck.
Sorry if I am rattling here, but I have seen the damage that the illegal's, under the radar, have done to a once beautiful city. E VERIFY ALL THE TIME!
Akron, OH
Posted 09:29 AM, 11/10/2008
It will come in handy on Akron's west side.
akron, oh
Posted 09:42 AM, 11/10/2008
Does it translate ebonics?
Stow, OH
Posted 09:58 AM, 11/10/2008
I always thought a Taser translates quite nicely when you want someones attention.
Posted 11:04 AM, 11/10/2008
SPEAK ENGLISH OR LEAVE!!!!!!!!
Posted 11:48 AM, 11/10/2008
Se habla Esperanto!
Akron, Oh
Posted 12:26 PM, 11/10/2008
That was kind of an ignorant post, elaine. Following your logic, am i to assume that all elaine's are as ignorant as you?
As to the esperanto, do I know you? Are you the mensa guy that i worked w/?
Danville, CA
Posted 02:19 PM, 11/10/2008
Elaine, I agree but unfortunately the barn door was left wide open and there's no going back. We lived in Los Angeles for about five years and the problem is real bad there but not so bad in northern Cal. Our cost of living is so high and we're so far away that the combined factors just don't allow for as many of them to be around.
Sorry, but Ohioans don't get it. I don't like them either but we've gone past that point.
Posted 02:50 PM, 11/10/2008
Sorry Elaine, but not all illegals are Hispanic, when was the last time you went to a Nail salon, or Massage parlor!! It's funny those whose grandparents who came over on a boat about 100 years ago forgot they had immigrants in their families to who had to integrate and learn english too (some whose english was never perfected) Guess it's different depending on where in Europe your ancestors came from. Stop the Hate, America is not suffering because of Greedy Hispanics on Wallstreet!!!!
Posted 04:11 PM, 11/10/2008
My only issue with illegal aliens is simple.
If they are unwilling to stand in line and come here legally,, then they are by the very definition of the law criminals. Period.
LEGAL immigration is fine,, my dear wife is a LEGAL immigrant,, and she really gets steamed by these crooks,, too damned lazy to wait in line like everyone else.
akron, oh
Posted 05:25 PM, 11/10/2008
Its a felony in Mexico to be an Illegal there... Kind of Ironic isn't it.....
Posted 09:12 PM, 11/10/2008
Good evening,
Elaine you are a HATE-R! I lived in Akron 18 years. I now live in Tampa, Florida and half of the population speaks Spanish. The first language in Miami is Spanish. The street signs are in Spanish too. Get a life "Home Girl"! Wrap your mind around this, "CHANGE" has come to America. Many Spanish speaking people use Hand-Held translators to speak English. What's the big DEAL? Are you too FAT & lazy to learn another language? Try EBONICS..BE-otch!
Before Akron, I grew up in Bedford Hts, a suburb just outside of Cleveland. Nobody, past 93rd and Broadway spoke English. They spoke Polish, Hungarian, Lithuanian, Yugoslavian, get it! They were all Immigrants from Eastern Europe...they all had one thing in common, they all had WHITE SKIN! You sound like one of those UNDER EDUCATED people from the hills of West Virginia. Hasta lajaga!
