Australian and UK researchers are working with the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to help improve communication with non-English speakers during police interviews.

The research project, Interpreting Accuracy and Rapport in High Stakes Interviews, is being conducted for the High-Value Detainee Interrogation Group based at FBI Headquarters in Langley, Virginia, USA.

The multidisciplinary research team is led by Professor Jane Goodman-Delahunty, a specialist in legal psychology affiliated with the Australian Graduate School of Policing and Security (AGSP&S) and the School of Psychology at Charles Sturt University (CSU). Her collaborators include Professor Sandra Hale, a legal interpreting expert at the University of NSW; Professor Mandeep Dhami, from Middlesex University, London; and Ms Natalie Martschuk, a Research Associate at CSU.

"Much intelligence and investigative information gathered by the FBI and other policing agencies involves interviews with people from non-English speaking backgrounds," Professor Goodman-Delahunty said. "This requires careful interpretation.

"Police who rely on interpreters to communicate with suspects during interviews have concerns about the accuracy of the translation, the potential interference with their rapport-building strategies, the loss of control they experience when questions and answers are mediated by interpreters, and the potential for bias when the suspect and interpreter share a common culture that differs from that of the interviewer. Yet, there is no requirement for adequate training and certification of interpreters to ensure that those fears do not become a reality."

Prior research on court interpreting has shown that untrained interpreters can pose a real risk to the accuracy and adequacy of the interpretation. However, very little research has been conducted on police interpreting and the difference that interpreter training makes.

"Rapport building is considered crucial in police interviews, with specific strategies used by police to achieve this goal," Professor Goodman-Delahunty said. "Interpreters need to be familiar with these social strategies, and the need to maintain them in their interpretation so as to not interfere with the aims of the police interview.

"A more controversial issue is the placement of the interpreter relative to the other speakers. Some practitioners contend that the best position is between the two interlocutors in a triangular arrangement, while others advocate for the interpreter to sit behind the suspect to avoid any eye contact with them.  However, no research has been conducted on the effect of rapport maintenance training and variations in the placement of the interpreter in police interviews."

To provide empirical answers to these questions, the researchers are conducting a series of simulated police interviews in Sydney with 165 trained and untrained Spanish-English interpreters, and monolingual third-party neutral intermediaries. The researchers will analyse and compare the effects of three main factors: the training and expertise of the interpreter; the extent of maintenance of rapport by the interpreter; and the variations in the placement of the interpreter relative to the suspect.The NSW Police Force is making its interview facilities available to the researchers to enhance the realism of the study.