Met launches multilingual 999 service

Monday, 21 June 2004 12:00 AM

The Metropolitan Police has launched a new translation service for emergency calls.

The capital-wide launch follows a three month evaluation of the service which aims to provide support to those who speak little or no English.

Out of around 7000 emergency calls per day, the Met receives approximately 20 from people who do not speak English as a first language, a figure which is increasing.

The new translation project, in association with telecom company Damovo and interpretation service Language Line, will allow calls to be taken in 150 languages.

Chief Superintendent Stephen MacDonald, said: "We are very pleased to be able to offer this new service. Our emergency call handlers are impressed with the new interpreting service, which is very straightforward.

"Using a three way conference call more essential information can be obtained, resulting in an improved response to the caller."

A local publicity campaign is planned for later in the year to highlight the existence of the scheme to the relevant communities.

London has the most diverse population in the UK, with 28 per cent of the population from ethnic minority backgrounds, and over 200 different languages spoken.

One of the cases highlighted in the pilot project was a call from a mother who did not speak English, reporting the abduction of her children. As a result of the translation facilities available the police were able to send out an all ports call and succeeded in preventing the children leaving the country and arresting a suspect.

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