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SFPD and oversight groups outline language-access improvements for limited-English survivors
Summary
Office of Citizen Complaints and SFPD presenters described Department General Order 5.2, bilingual-officer certification, roll-call training, multilingual station cards, and dispatch/technology upgrades to identify bilingual officers; SFPD reported about 1,800 interpretation events in the year, most in Spanish.
The Office of Citizen Complaints (OCC) and San Francisco Police Department told the joint commissions about steps to improve language access for victims and witnesses who are limited-English proficient.
Sam Ramarian of OCC recounted the coalition of more than 22 organizations that helped draft Department General Order 5.2, the SFPD language-access protocol, and described its key elements: preference for direct bilingual-officer communication, prohibition on using children or bystanders as interpreters except in exigent circumstances, and designation of a language liaison officer. "It requires the San Francisco Police Department Officers to provide language access or language services to limited English proficient individuals that they encounter," Ramarian said.
SFPD's language liaison officers and Deputy Chief Beal outlined operational steps: reissuing a bulletin to encourage officer certification, roll-call and PSA training, development of a multilingual card for station use, and work to add officer skill indicators into dispatch. Officer Eric Chang, the language-access liaison, reported roughly 1,800 interpretation events citywide last year, about 1,060 in Spanish and several hundred in Cantonese and Mandarin, and noted that about 90 percent of interpretation events used LanguageLine telephonic services.
Advocates urged additional outreach to immigrant communities and suggested training for telephonic interpreters on domestic-violence dynamics and cultural competency. OCC and SFPD said they will pursue improved technology (tablets, video) and further cross-agency training.
