Transnational Organised Crime and Translation (TOCAT): Improving police communication across languages

我们的社会比以往任何时候都更加多样化-今天在英国使用300多种语言。这种多样化的增加对警察产生了重大影响。官员们现在必须调查和打击有组织犯罪“网络”，其成员使用多种语言进行交流。因此，警方越来越需要翻译人员，以便能够调查人口贩运和儿童性剥削等严重罪行。在跨国有组织犯罪与翻译（TOCAT）项目中，研究人员、警方和翻译提供商将共同努力，了解并应对这些挑战。我们的出发点是需要提供实用的指导，以帮助警察和翻译尽可能有效地合作。一个工作组已经起草了新的英国官方指导方针，供警方在与翻译人员合作时使用。TOCAT项目团队将采用“测试、学习、适应”的方法对这些新指南进行试验。英国和比利时的选定警官将接受使用指南的培训，然后研究人员将采访和“跟踪”警官，以衡量他们在实践中的有效性，以及用户确定的任何其他潜在需求。这将使我们能够修改方法，使其更适合实际需要。比利时的审判也将使我们能够测试这种方法在多大程度上可以“翻译”到面临类似挑战的其他国家，因为跨国犯罪跨越国界。我们将提出的主要问题是：1.警方如何更有效地了解和打击跨国有组织犯罪，如人口贩运，当它是在不同的语言进行？特别是，当受害者、证人或嫌疑人与调查人员讲的语言不同时，警察应如何与翻译合作？2.计划中的警察方法在实践中是否有效，如果无效，可以采取哪些措施来加强这种方法？3.面对这些新挑战，前线工作人员（警察、支援人员、翻译）有何经验？他们能否帮助我们更全面地了解跨国有组织犯罪？为了回答这些问题，英国东安格利亚大学的两位研究人员Joanna Drugan博士和Alexandria Innes博士将与比利时鲁汶大学的两位研究人员Heidi Salaets教授和Katalin Balogh博士合作。我们将利用我们与警方和代表翻译人员的所有专业协会建立的伙伴关系来设计和开展研究。该研究团队在研究“现实世界”环境中的翻译实践、移民以及与语言学家、犯罪嫌疑人和受害者（包括儿童和其他弱势群体）合作的警察方面拥有数十年的经验。Drugan博士是翻译质量方面的专家，他将监督该项目。Drugan博士和移民专家Innes博士将与三个警察局和警察学院合作进行英国的研究。Salaets教授和Balogh博士都具有在警察环境中进行口译的专业知识，他们将与当地和联邦警察合作进行比利时的研究。我们将在这个项目中特别关注人口贩运和走私犯罪。我们还将关注语言挑战对一线工作人员的影响，特别是警察和翻译。我们将尽可能广泛地与警方、翻译服务提供商和研究人员分享我们的研究成果和经过实践检验的方法，包括免费提供我们的（匿名）数据。这将为针对日益严重的跨国犯罪的循证警务作出宝贵贡献，并支持对这一重要专题的进一步研究。

Our societies are more diverse than ever - more than 300 languages are spoken in the UK today. This increased diversity has had a major impact for the police. Officers now have to investigate and combat organised crime 'networks' whose members communicate across multiple languages. Police therefore increasingly need translators to be able to investigate serious crimes such as people trafficking and child sexual exploitation. This involves significant challenges, including cost, number of languages, quality and the limited supply of qualified linguists.In the Transnational Organised Crime and Translation (TOCAT) project, researchers, the police and translation providers will work together to understand and face up to these challenges. Our starting point is the need for practical guidance to help police officers and translators work together as effectively as possible. A working group has drafted official new UK guidelines for police to use when they work with translators. The TOCAT project team will conduct a trial of these new guidelines, using a 'Test, Learn, Adapt' approach. Selected police officers in the UK and Belgium will be trained to use the guidelines, then researchers will interview and 'shadow' police officers as they work to measure their effectiveness in practice, as well as any other potential needs identified by the users. This will allow us to revise the approach to make it better suited to actual needs. The Belgian trial will also allow us to test how far the approach can be 'translated' to other countries facing similar challenges, since transnational crime operates across national borders.The main questions we will be asking are:1. How can police work more effectively to understand and fight transnational organised crime such as people trafficking when it is conducted across different languages? In particular, how should police work with translators when victims, witnesses or suspects don't speak the same language as investigators?2. Is the planned police approach effective in practice, and, where it is not, what can be done to enhance it?3. What are the experiences of frontline workers (police officers, support workers, translators) when they face these new challenges, and can they help us develop a better overall understanding of transnational organised crime?To answer these questions, two researchers at the University of East Anglia in the UK, Dr Joanna Drugan and Dr Alexandria Innes, will work with two researchers at the University of Leuven in Belgium, Prof. Heidi Salaets and Dr Katalin Balogh. We will draw on our established partnerships with the police and all the professional associations representing translators to design and carry out the research. The research team has decades of experience in researching translation practice in 'real-world' settings, migration, and police working with linguists, suspects and victims of crime, including children and other vulnerable groups. Dr Drugan, an expert in translation quality, will oversee the project. Dr Drugan and Dr Innes, who is an expert in migration, will conduct the UK research, working with three Constabularies and the College of Policing. Prof. Salaets and Dr Balogh, who both have expertise in interpreting in police settings, will conduct the Belgian research, working with local and federal Police.We will focus particularly on the crimes of human trafficking and smuggling in this project. We will also focus on the impact of language challenges on frontline workers, notably police officers and translators. We will share our research findings and the tried-and-tested approach as widely as possible among police, translation providers and researchers, including making our (anonymised) data available for free. This will result in a valuable contribution to evidence-based policing of increasingly significant transnational crimes, and support further research on this important topic.