Police and Criminal Justice Interpreting Services

Custody suite and police interview interpreting

Most police work reaches us through a custody suite. Someone has been brought in, the custody sergeant has to explain the reason for arrest, the rights and entitlements and the codes of practice, and none of that counts for much unless it lands in a language the detainee genuinely understands. We supply custody suite interpreters for that first stage, for the consultation with the duty solicitor, and for the PACE interview itself.

Interview work is unforgiving. Once the tape is running, the interpreted words are the record, and defence counsel will read them later, slowly. Our interpreters render what is said in full, without smoothing, summarising or filling gaps. If a question does not carry cleanly into the other language, the interpreter says so at the time. That takes thirty seconds. Untangling it at trial, months on, costs a great deal more, and occasionally costs the case.

The practical side matters too. Long interviews need breaks, because fatigue is where accuracy goes first, and an interpreter who has already worked with the complainant should not then be put in the room with the suspect. Detainee welfare conversations, healthcare assessments in the block and calls to a family member need language support as well, and they rarely appear on the original booking.

Witness statements and victim interviews

Taking a statement through an interpreter is slower than officers expect the first time they do it. The question goes out, the account comes back, and what gets written down has to be the witness's words rather than a tidied English paraphrase. We brief interpreters to keep the register intact. If a witness swore, the statement carries the swearing. If a threat sounds mild in literal English but is anything but mild in the original, the interpreter flags the strength of it rather than quietly downgrading it.

Victim and safeguarding interviews bring a second set of demands. Domestic abuse, trafficking, honour-based abuse and child protection work involve people who may be frightened of the process, of the person who harmed them, and sometimes of their own community. Gender preference is treated as a requirement, not a nicety. In smaller language communities we avoid an interpreter who may be socially connected to those involved, and we would rather decline a booking than send someone whose presence would stop a victim speaking. Where a case is charged and reaches court, hearings and conferences with counsel are covered on our legal sector interpreting page.

Out-of-hours and emergency interpreting

Arrests do not keep office hours, so neither does the phone line. Our telephone interpreting service runs 24 hours a day, every day of the year, and usually connects within minutes. Enough to establish who someone is, whether they need a doctor, whether a child is at the address, or what happened at an incident before anyone leaves the scene.

For attendance in person, in major UK cities we can normally arrange face-to-face interpreting within 2 to 4 hours in the common languages. The exceptions are worth being straight about. A rare language at three in the morning, sixty miles from the nearest city, is a different problem: for some languages the UK pool is a couple of dozen qualified people, and if two are already sitting in police stations elsewhere, the honest answer is a slot later that morning rather than a promise nobody can keep. Telephone cover holds the position meanwhile, and video works where the suite has the kit.

Out-of-hours attendance carries a premium, as it does across the industry. We put that in the quote rather than on the invoice as a surprise.

Probation, prisons and offender management

Language need does not stop at charge. We provide probation interpreting for supervision appointments, for licence conditions being explained properly rather than nodded at, for unpaid work inductions and for the assessments behind a sentence plan. A breach that happened because someone did not understand a condition helps nobody, least of all the officer who has to write it up.

Prison work follows the same pattern. Interpreters attend visits and induction meetings, join prison video links, and support offender management meetings and multi-agency reviews. Some bookings sit in a diary weeks ahead, which is the easy kind. Others are called on the day. Tell us early either way, because notice is the single thing that most improves who we can send.

Youth offending teams, community sentence appointments and drug and alcohol services come through us too, usually via a local authority or a criminal justice coordinator handling several cases at once. The full range of modes is on our interpreting services page.

Recorded interview transcription and translation

Not every requirement needs a person in the room. We produce audio transcription of recorded interviews and control room calls, and video transcription of body-worn footage, either verbatim in the language spoken or translated into English for the file. Timecodes and speaker labels are standard, because a reviewing officer needs to find the passage again.

Foreign-language statements, custody records and case papers can be translated for disclosure, and issued as a certified translation with a signed statement of accuracy where the CPS or the court asks for one. Once a matter is listed for hearing, our legal sector page picks up the courtroom side.

Vetting, confidentiality and evidential integrity

Every interpreter we send to a police, court, NHS or council safeguarding appointment holds a current Enhanced DBS certificate, and we use police-cleared linguists where the setting calls for extra vetting. Interpreters used for police work are usually Met Police Approved. We confirm vetting and qualifications before you commit, which is usually what a custody sergeant or a procurement officer wants in writing. If your force requires a specific vetting level for an operation, say so at booking stage and we will tell you plainly whether we can meet it. We do not advertise clearances we do not hold.

Impartiality is part of it. An interpreter is there to convey what is said, accurately and completely, and nothing beyond that: no advice, no side conversations, no explaining the process on the officer's behalf. We will not assign an interpreter who has a connection to anyone involved in the matter.

Every linguist signs a non-disclosure agreement, handling is in line with UK GDPR, and material is shared only with the people working on that job. We are glad to work to your force's own terms instead of ours. Where recordings or exhibit copies come to us, we keep a record of what arrived, who worked on it and what went back, so the handling can be accounted for later.