Police Constable has no positive experience with Capita interpreters
A police constable [name and collar number removed by Linguist Lounge] from Wythenshawe Police Station called me on 30th October to book my interpreting services for an incident of domestic violence. When I attended on the agreed date on 01.11.12, I asked about the reasons for not using Capita. The police constable stated that they called Capita on 28th October to book an interpreter for Tuesday 30th October, however, the following day they received a message from Capita saying that a Farsi interpreter was not available on the agreed date.
The police had the alleged perpetrator in custody. He did not need an interpreter; however, they needed an interpreter to take a statement from the injured party. The police therefore, called a Farsi interpreter to travel all the way from London to take the statement on 30th October. Despite the cancellation, a Capita interpreter also arrived few hours later than originally booked. Since the London interpreter was already there taking the statement, the agency’s interpreter was released.
Following this statement, the suspect was interviewed, however, there were few points that needed to be clarified with the injured party, therefore, they called me. The police decided to video interview the injured party. During a short break, the police constable told me that she and her colleagues do not have any positive experience with Capita and they are of the view that the interpreters provided by Capita do not appear to have a similar level of professionalism. She further added that on two previous occasions she had specifically asked for a female interpreter; however, a male interpreter turned up. According to the officer, the interpreters on both occasions kept a prolonged conversation with the injured party to the extent that she had to intervene and ask for the conversation to be interpreted. The interpreter said: “it’s nothing, she is just upset”.
According to the police constable, her colleagues have had similar dissatisfaction with the quality of the interpreting service provided by Capita.
I would like to point out that Farsi is not a rare language and there are many qualified interpreters in my language, nonetheless Capita is still struggling to provide an interpreter. In this case 3 interpreters was used for a statement.
Report redacted from rpsi.name/default
