Nuances in language by ESL suspects and police, addressed by Fairfax criminal lawyer

Nuances with police can be many when the suspect uses English as a second language (ESL / ESOL. Fairfax and the rest of Northern Virginia teems with people speaking English as a second language. Yet, as a Fairfax criminal lawyer I know that many police officers repeatedly do not ask criminal suspects with non-English speaking accents of their English abilities while interviewing them. To do so often is to engage in willful ignorance, despite police claims that language was not a barrier between them, when the suspect responded to the officer’s words in English, or did not ask for an interpreter or otherwise indicate an inability to understand. Consider, alone, the number of people too afraid or nervous to tell this police officer with authority that the suspect cannot understand them, particularly if the person comes from a country with routinely brutal police.

Language nuances with law enforcement officers (LEO’s) are affected by an ESL speakers’ vocabulary

A scholarly article on the NIH website concludes that: “[W]e estimate that an average 20-year-old student … knows 42,000 lemmas and 4,200 multiword expressions…” So many ESL speakers have an English vocabulary much smaller than that, which clearly impacts the nuances with which they can speak and understand in English. That, alone, merits police asking those with non-English-speaking accents (if not everyone) about their English-speaking abilities, on top of asking their educational level. Even those studying in America with English as a second language are not assured to have nearly as much English abilities as a native speaker.

Police need to be sensitive to the language challenges of ESL suspects

People who have spent substantial time learning a second language can be particularly sensitive to this matter, and those with the opposite experience can be more prone to insensitivity in this realm involving language nuances. I studied French for eight years, have spoken it conversationally in depth, and have spent several weeks total in France and Quebec, and still my French ability does not come close to my English ability. That gap is larger with my speaking Spanish for decades, with my formal study having been brief, but benefitted by first learning French. Many people feel stress dealing with police, which adds to the challenges of using English as a second language.

Nonverbal communication adds to language nuances when ESL suspects communicate with police

On top of all that with language nuances are non-verbal ways of communicating in non-English languages that might be mis-interpreted by an English speaker, let alone what might not be picked up by an interpreter on a phone language line rather than being present to see the person speaking. For instance, in India common is moving one’s head side-to-side, which might mean yes, good, maybe, okay, or I understand. A police officer might misinterpret that as a headshake for no. In Ethiopia, common is for a non-verbal inhalation that to an English speaker might sound like a sound of nervousness or worry (and thus be interpreted by a police officer as consciousness of guilt) but instead confirms the listener is listening or is present.

Virginia criminal defendants’ liberty does not justify avoiding paying for an interpreter to assist communications between an ESOL suspect and police

Language phone lines (imperfect but better than none) and bilingual police personnel (at least in Spanish in at least three Northern Virginia counties) are available. Willful police ignorance with language ability and language nuances should not slide. Virginia police officers must never be told nor intimated to save government money by avoiding obtaining interpreters for assisting with communicating with suspects. Of course, suspects will help themselves to know and assert their Fifth and Sixth Amendment Constitutional rights to remain silent with the police in the first place.

Fairfax criminal lawyer Jonathan Katz goes above and beyond the call of duty in providing his clients fully skilled, experienced, caring, and razor sharp defense against Virginia felony, misdemeanor and DUI prosecutions. You will know this by the end of your free initial in-person strictly confidential consultation with Jon Katz about your court-pending prosecution. Call 703-383-1100, Info@KatzJustice.com, and (text) 571-406-7268 to schedule your meeting with Jon.