Police from numerous forces across England have been taking lessons in how to peak Polish. Officers from Suffolk, Bedfordshire and Buckinghamshire, among others have been learning language skills that the authorities are confident will allow the police to do their job more effectively.
Joanna Michalak-Gray who is a member of Suffolk Police support staff and a Polish language tutor said that "Gaining a knowledge and understanding of cultural differences will help to establish stronger links with the Polish community,” She added "There can be a perceived level of mistrust between the Polish community and the police. "Similarly, there can be a certain stigma and generalisation attributed to the Polish community. "In Poland, the police were associated very closely with the old communist regime, for example."
The classes at New Suffolk College teach basic language skills that can be used on a daily basis and aspects of the culture and traditions of Poland. The training follows on from the success of a Portuguese language course held last year, Suffolk Police said.
Insp Matt Dee of Suffolk Police added: "We have been made aware of community tensions or incidents that once would have been unreported. "By having reduced the initial language barriers, we have established a better understanding of the issues facing different communities."
Over in Bedfordshire a similar exercise is underway and police officers and PCSO’s are being given lessons in Polish in a bid to break down barriers in the community. Insp Gavin Hughes-Rowland from Bedfordshire Police said: "Whilst this basic course will only give our teams a basic understanding of Polish it will help to break down some of the barriers with a community that is not always easy for us to engage with.
"It is important for the Polish community to see us working towards improving communication with them and that we wish to further build up relationships with them. "The sort of phrases we are learning are along the lines of 'What is your name? Do you have any injuries? Do you have any friends or family that can speak English?’ "But we also want to be able to ask questions like 'How would you prefer to be contacted?' and 'What are your neighbourhood priorities?'."
Other Police Forces across the country appear to be following a similar path.
Rods Comments:
Fresh from the mouths of innocents (well certain senior Police Officers anyway) comes the admission that because the Poles do not like their own police very much, probably with some considerable justification, there a ‘certain stigma ’and ‘tensions or incidents between the Polish community’ and presumably the native English population, certainly between the Polish community and the English Police.
Is this another example of the lunatics taking control of the asylum? The lunatics in question here must surely be the senior police officers who deemed it necessary to take police officers off of the streets again, when the community (the native English one that is) say that they do not see enough police on the streets as it is. I suppose that the Polish community will be happy to see less police as they don’t appear to like them anyway.
It must also be asked that if you went to live in Poland or Portugal or anywhere else, would you expect that nation’s police officers to learn English just to make you feel more comfortable when you are nicked, or would you learn to speak their lingo.My answer to this is very simple “If you come to England to live and work, then have the common decency to learn English before you come”.
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