*Cancelled* Rob Skinner’s Police Training

This session looks at the subject of interpreter-mediated police interviews. With greater legal protection afforded to (deaf) citizens the right to a qualified interpreter for police interviews has become standard practice. This benchmark places an expectation on the police and interpreters to become prepared and able to work with each in these complex environments.

How the police cope in situations where the victim, witness or suspect is a deaf BSL user is an understudied subject. Little is known about how the police make sense of what the potential issues are, what the citizen’s needs are, and whether they have properly prepared for an interview mediated by an interpreter. The minimal research in this area has cautioned the dependence on non-trained interpreters, and recommended that both interpreters and the police review their standard approaches to communication. For the police this has meant rethinking how interviews are managed, how rapport with a citizen is reached and maintained, how an interpreter is introduced to the interview, and how to maintain a professional relationship with the interpreter. Another equally important emphasis is the up-skilling of interpreters who work in these settings. For interpreters it is necessary to understand how and why the police manage their interviews with a citizen in a particular way, how questions are intentionally designed to promote talk through rapport building/maintenance strategies.

This ASLI D&C workshop will cover the following issues by looking at, what is the current role of the police in a UK context, developments in police interview techniques, the discursive expertise and technical skills required by the interpreter. The workshop will involve both presentations and practical tasks.

Suggested reading

• You have the Right to Remain Signing: A guide to communicating in interpreter-mediated police interviews. A guide for police officers who need to communicate with a deaf sign language user. https://indd.adobe.com/view/4b1229a2-1865-4010-8b63-90da54be7941
• ASLI Legal Interpreting Best Practice: http://www.asli.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/ASLI-Legal-Interpreting-Best-Practise-LIBP-edited-April-2016.pdf
• Police Investigative Interviews and Interpreting: Context, Challenges, and Strategies (2014) by Sedat Mulayim, Miranda Lai, Caroline Norma. https://www.crcpress.com/Police-Investigative-Interviews-and-Interpreting-Context-Challenges-and/Mulayim-Lai-Norma/p/book/9780367870126

Lunch will be provided please contact devoncornwall@asli.org.uk with any dietary requirements 

50% discount for all ASLI members please contact devoncornwall@asli.org.uk for the discount code.

4 Structured CPD Points

Location: The Kenn Centre, Exeter, EX6 7UE