Then why are they shooting so many people?
"Handheld device lets officials translate on the go" by Maria Sacchetti | Globe Staff, August 24, 2013
MALDEN — Police Officer Keith Wilson was in the middle of his shift one recent day when his radio crackled with an alert. A woman had disappeared.
He rushed to the house on Clifton Street, where he discovered the woman’s worried husband, her sister-in-law, and an increasingly common problem in this immigrant city: They were speaking a language the officer did not understand.
In the past, Wilson might have muddled through with gestures, asked a neighbor to translate, or waited for an official government translator to show up. But this time, Wilson called his sergeant to bring him “the box,” a handheld mobile device the size of a garage-door opener, which, with the press of its single button, links authorities to live translators in less than a minute — wherever the officer happens to be.
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Malden, a city of 60,000 with the second-highest percentage of immigrants in the state, nearly 40 percent, is among dozens of municipalities and agencies nationwide using the new devices to overcome language barriers that can hinder investigations and delay response times. While hospitals and 911 operators have quick access to translation services, city officials say police and other emergency responders in the field did not.
Residents in this once mostly white city now speak more than 50 languages as distinct as Hindi, Mandarin, and Yoruba.
That is what comes with being a sanctuary state for illegal immigrants. You should see the state forms they send you.
Nationwide, more than 130 municipalities, school departments, and even an area-rug factory in rural Alabama have started using the devices since the Minnesota-based company, RTT Mobile Interpretation, started distributing them in February, said John Grove, who owns the US distribution rights....
So who is going to be making a buck at taxpayer expense?
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