Some aspects of the role of interpreters in investigative interviews

The demand for interpreting services in police investigations has been growing steadily in the UK. For example, in Cambridgeshire, the number of foreign nationals in custody has risen to over 30% in recent years and the proportion of foreign nationals amongst victims and witnesses is also at the same level (Mayfield, 2014). Subsequently, one in four investigative interviews in Cambridgeshire is now conducted with the assistance of an interpreter (Mayfield & Vanterpool, 2016). Similar situation can be observed in other counties in the UK, many countries of the European Union, the United States of America and Australia (GoodmanDelahunty & Silvasubramanian, 2013; GoodmanDelahunty, 2015).

accurately the meaning of messages, interpreters were observed altering expressions of hesitation and affirmation which may change the level of politeness used in the investigative communication. Other researchers observed interpreting as a cultural act and focused on different interpreting strategies used to render the messages (Russell, 2000;Hale, 1997;Mulayim et al., 2014;Dando & Milne, 2009). Böser (2013) highlighted that in bilingual police interviews an interpreter can be an equal 'co-creator' in relation to the participants' 'orientation towards a series of organisational objectives' (Böser, 2013, p. 114). Filipović (2007) analysed police interview materials of witness interviews and demonstrated that interpreters were required to perform linguistic and cross-cultural analyses in the act of interpreting. She concluded that a better understanding of the problematic differences between the languages and the habitual languagespecific phrasing is needed during the interviewing of witnesses via interpreters (Filipović, 2007, p. 264). The study demonstrated the importance of using the expertise of police interpreters, as they act at the level of a forensic linguist.
The dynamics of investigative interviews inevitably changes when interpreters are involved. Some scholars apply the term presence when discussing various aspects of investigative interviews conducted with the assistance of interpreters (Nakane, 2009;Russell, 2002;Heydon, 2005).
However, an interpreter is not just present, but plays an active role in removing language barriers doi: 10.29366/2019tlc.3.1.6 rudn.tlcjournal.org and assisting in effective communication between the interviewer and their interviewee. At the same time, the impact of the presence of an interpreter on the interaction dynamics and the power relationships is still being under-researched (Nakane, 2014). Russel (2002) noted that the traditional oppositional dyad of interviewer and suspect is transformed by the presence of an interpreter 'into a triadic mixture of opposition, cooperation and shifting alignments' (Russel, 2002, p. 116). However, no similar research was conducted to date to study the change in the dynamics of interpreter-assisted interviews of victims and witnesses. This field remains underresearched, and the reason for this might be the existing practices in police interviewing of victims and witnesses.
Law professionals and researchers increasingly acknowledge that interviewing victims and witnesses has a very high importance in investigations (Milne & Bull, 1999). Indeed, the first interview with witnesses of crime had paramount and defining importance in the outcome of investigations. In an event where such an interview was not conducted appropriately, the whole investigation could fail (Milne & Shaw, 1999).
However, law-enforcement institutions are more concerned with interviewing suspects. For example, the initial training on how to conduct an investigative interview may take a week, and only two days are dedicated to interviewing victims and witnesses (Clarke & Milne, 2001;Milne & Bull, 2003).
In current police practice, an account of a victim or a witness is recorded by the interviewing investigator. When recorded by the police, the account of a victim or a witness is referred to as a witness statement. The actual interviews are not routinely recorded unless the victim or witness is classed as vulnerable, in which case more advanced interviewers or specialist officers would conduct video recorded interviews (Kebbell et al., 1999).
Contrary to the myth that any bilingual can interpret, legal interpreting is a highly demanding professional field of expertise. Legal interpreting started evolving into a separate profession under a wider name of Public Service Interpreting (PSI), also known as Community Interpreting in response to the demand in the last few decades (Corsellis, 2008, D'Hayer, 2012Hale, 2007;Llewellyn-Jones & Lee, 2014;Mason, 2006). Police interpreters are highly skilled professionals dealing with a variety of jargons, terminology, acronyms covering a number of subjects. They are supposed to overcome cultural taboos and natural hesitations and master equally balanced bilingual fluency in obscene terminology, colloquialisms and slang. Furthermore, in addition to learning police jargon interpreters need to understand policies, procedures, interviewing styles and develop tactics and a lot more in order to place the non-English speaking interviewee in as similar position as possible to an English-speaking person (Krouglov, 1999 Taking into consideration previous studies in the field of police interpreting, the main focus of this research is to explore the way interpreters perceive their role in investigative interviews of non-English speaking victims and witnesses and the subsequent witness statement taking procedures.
The research provides an analysis of collected empirical data that identify specific issues and challenges encountered by interpreters and develops our understanding of current practices and approaches in the field. As a result, the following working hypotheses have been generated and tested in this study: (1) police interpreters would have a range of issues specific to the interpreter-assisted interviews of victims/witnesses and the subsequent statement taking procedure; (2) police interpreters find interpreter-assisted investigative interviews of victims and witnesses more challenging than interviewing suspects.
Following the preliminary research and literature review in the field, the following research questions come into focus: (1) Do interpreters rely on any formal training and/or guidance documents when assisting in taking witness statements of non-English 'However, the codes are not strictly prescriptive and usually can be described as a general professional guidance, although the principle of impartiality or neutrality is specifically emphasised in all of them' speaking victims and witnesses?
(2) What major challenges and issues do police interpreters face when assisting in taking a witness statement as part of interpreter-assisted investigative interviews?
(3) How is the aspect of impartiality perceived by interpreters in the context of interpreterassisted investigative interviews of victims and witnesses and the subsequent witness statement taking procedures?

MATERIAL AND METHODS
The quantitative data were obtained through questionnaires specifically designed to elicit relevant information from police interpreters in

STUDY AND RESULTS
The collected data and comments were analysed specifically ensuring that the comments made by individual respondents supported, explained or modified the answers from the list of ready-made options offered for selection. This approach helped establish variations and some particular attitudes or views on various aspects of the role of interpreters in interpreters-assisted interviews.
All 90 respondents confirmed having relevant experience by selecting one of the options with the numbers of the interpreter-assisted interviews of victims and witnesses completed to date. Figure   1 shows the experience as the data validity parameter.
The majority of respondents showed significant experience in providing interpreter-assisted      highlighted 'cultural differences', a very broad topic that although seriously under-researched, attracted attention of some scholars (Krouglov, 1999;Filipović, 2007, Hales & Filipović, 2016  Interpreters raised concerns that police officers often delegated or attempted to delegate fully or partially their responsibilities to interview non-English speaking victims and witnesses to interpreters. While most interpreters refused to act as investigators, a number of interpreters admitted that they were coerced into assuming the role of an investigator and that they did not hesitate to assume the investigative role and take statements.
Interpreters described in their free comments that they felt bullied, humiliated, and coerced to act as investigators. The respondents noted that the standard and quality of such statements can be questionable. Non-English speaking victims and witnesses were described as 'marginalised'.
Having received and analysed the data with regards to the issues and challenges, it was established that only 7% (6 responses) of interpreters reported that it was easier to deal with victims and witnesses. This is clearly a sign that interpreter-assisted interviews of victims and witnesses and the statement taking procedure pose significant challenges and difficulties. The results further revealed that indeed a third of the respondents, 33% (30 responses), found it easier to assist in interviewing suspects.
One of the working hypotheses of this study was that interpreters would find dealing with suspects less challenging. Nevertheless, the majority of the respondents, i.e. 60% (54 responses) reported no preferences whatsoever as to the category of the interviewees whether a suspect, a victim or a witness ( Figure 6).
Thus, the main finding in this section confirms the hypothesis suggesting that practicing specialists would find the interpreter-assisted investigative interview of victims and witnesses more challenging than interviewing suspects.