POLICE are spending more than £1,000 a day on translating for people who can't speak English.
The figures were revealed after a Freedom Of Information request. They show that from April 2011 to April 2012, £429,350.46 was spent on translation services.
The service is used for victims and suspects who cannot speak English but the force has admitted the system is not as cost-effective as it could be.
Ways to save money are being explored and will be implemented later this year and are likely to focus on handling front-counter translations.
Police will also look to reduce costs by using bilingual officers when circumstances allow.
Andrea Naylor, of the force's human resources department, said: "As part of the recent recruitment, we have engaged with communities to attract officers with language skills that could be used while on duty.
"We have assessed the benefit, and continue to do so, of recruiting specific accredited translators to assist with languages that feature regularly on the analysis of calls.
"This is not considered effective at this stage due to the diverse range of languages and the necessity for 24-hour cover. Furthermore, we are constrained by the need for witness statements to be free from questioning impartiality at a later date.
"We will, however, continue to assess as the mix of languages change and settle and the costs change."
Of the £429,350, £394,964 was spent on interpreters and translation services, while £34,385 was for telephone interpreting.
Two different suppliers are used.
CINTRA provides translation services for witnesses and offenders, while Language Line provides a telephone service when immediate help is needed.
Police Federation chairman Phil Matthews said translation services had been standardised more than ten years ago to ensure everyone's legal rights were met.
"The problem we've got is when you are interviewing someone we need to have someone who can translate all the nuances," he said.
"Because police ask very specific questions we get very specific responses and if either of those are translated incorrectly and that response is then given in court it can lead to the collapse of a case.
"It's a cost we cannot avoid but I am surprised that it is as high as it is and, of course, we would prefer to see the money being spent on frontline policing.
"But part of policing is talking to people and hearing what they have to say so the force has to be able to do that effectively."
