California is one of the states with the highest number of immigrants, not only Latinos, but of various nationalities. This represents a real challenge for the officials of the Police Department, which is why, in the city of Los Angeles, they have been equipped with a special tool.
A device that resembles an old cell phone is now part of the equipment that several police officers in Los Angeles must carry in order to communicate in different languages without major inconveniences.
Basically, what agents do is Select on the device which language you want to communicate in. Subsequently, they speak into a microphone and, through a speaker, the team returns the phrase in the foreign language, for example, Spanish.
The tool is called Phraselator and, according to the media Los Angeles Timesit is the highest technology intended to translate and transmit thousands of phrases in a multitude of languages. The reason why it is being adopted by the city’s Police Department is that, being an area rich in immigrants, it is estimated that around 224 different languages are spoken.
It should be noted that this type of technology is not new, there are already various devices and platforms designed for real-time translation. However, its adoption and official use by the authorities is a novelty, among other reasons, because It has been specially designed for police work.
And Phraselator is not intended for the translation of any type of phrase in real time, this is with the intention of avoiding any type of misunderstanding that could arise. It only has pre-loaded information that has been authorized, basically these are police questions standard that can be translated and transmitted using a simple voice or text search.
This tool is expected to be especially useful when dealing with crowds and natural disasters. where communication difficulties usually cause a greater number of injuries. The above is that the system has the capacity to transmit translations from speakers that can send clear sound at a distance of approximately 800 meters without loss of quality.
However, it has a great limitation. The translation is unidirectional, that is, it can issue sentences in the selected language, but is not able to interpret the answers. The solution is to record what the other person says and, once at the police station, carry out the corresponding translation
Police translation system in Los Angeles was tested in war
American soldiers were equipped with this system to be able to communicate in Afghanistan and Iraq in languages such as Farsi, Dari, Pashto and others.
It is worth mentioning that The tool is not only being used in Los Angeles. The Las Vegas police also have the technology. Additionally, some Florida prison officials use it to interview Spanish-speaking inmates.
#California #tool #police #communicate #Latinos #speak #English