Police force spending over £1 million a year on interpreters due to rise in migrant workers

A police force today revealed that it is spending more than £1 million a year on interpreters following an influx of migrant workers.

Thames Valley Police Authority said the amount of money spent on interpreters had risen by £920,000 in the last decade.

The staggering sum was revealed as police chiefs warned that migrants with "different standards" to British citizens were placing a huge drain on resources.

Cambridgeshire Chief Constable Julie Spence was applauded for saying publicly that more officers are needed on the beat to cope with problems caused by the influx from Eastern Europe.

Forces elsewhere in the country said they were suffering similar issues with migrants who may be unfamiliar with British law.

Many have been accused of carrying knives in public, drink-driving and settling feuds from back home.

Thames Valley Police, which has responsibility for policing towns near Heathrow Airport, said it was "regrettable" that the Home Office had not increased funding.

Police Authority chairman Christine Weston said: "Across the force, we now face costs of interpretation of more than £1 million per year. Ten years ago this cost was less than £80,000."

"As a police authority and a force we are coping with this issue but it is regrettable that the Home Office has not altered our budget to take this new financial pressure into account.

"I support comments which suggest funding for shire forces does not keep pace with the increasing demands of ever more diverse populations."

Chief Constable Sara Thornton added: "The force is working hard to adapt where necessary; in Slough, for example, a number of officers have been learning Polish to communicate with the rising Polish population."

She said interpretation costs were "not an optional extra but an integral part of policing".

Cambridgeshire Chief Constable Spence has called upon the Government to fund 100 new officers for the county.

"When they arrive they think they can do the same thing as in the country they have come from," she said.

"There were a lot of people who, because they used to carry knives for protection, they think they can carry knives here.

"Their attitudes to drink-driving are probably where we were 20 years ago."

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Mrs Spence added: "We recently had a murder and it was a Lithuanian on Lithuanian and it could easily have happened in Lithuania.

"But it didn't, it happened in Wisbech, so one of my staff spent a lot of their time in Lithuania trying to get underneath what was actually happening with the crime and criminality, which brings costs that you wouldn't have had before, which means something else has to give."

Mrs Spence was the first chief constable to speak out on the issue, and was swiftly backed by other senior officers.

Northamptonshire Police chief constable Peter Maddison said: "I support her approach and echo the concerns."

The Association of Chief Police Officers said large numbers of people moving into the country over such a short period had "created challenges" in certain areas.

Peter Fahy, Chief Constable of Cheshire and Acpo's spokesman on race, said: "The East of England and areas such as Slough have seen huge changes in the make-up of their population.

"As with any community, there is a criminal element but Eastern Europeans have proved on the whole to be very law-abiding.

"Most forces have seen huge increases in their spending on interpreters.

"Police forces have had to dedicate resources to establishing links with new communities and deal with problems of tensions with others."

Mr Fahy said it was vital a debate on the issue should take place, adding: "It is unhealthy if people feel that they cannot talk about immigration for fear of being labelled racists as this clearly only generates further resentment."

Lincolnshire Police, which says it also needs extra officers, said difficulties faced by the force ranged from the carrying of weapons to drink-driving.

The Police Federation, which represents rank-and-file officers, said problems were being experienced in rural communities nationwide.

President Jan Berry said smaller forces, which have fewer officers, were less able to cope with the large influx of new arrivals – yet that was where the largest number had headed.

A report compiled by Mrs Spence's force – which has been charged with policing the bulk of the 83,000 Eastern Europeans to arrive in the East of England since May 2004 – said there had been a 17-fold rise in arrests of foreigners for drink-driving.

The report also warned of the emergence of an 'international dimension' to crimes, including cannabis production, human trafficking and credit card skimming.

The force has had to issue guidelines, available in 15 languages, telling foreigners how to behave in Britain.

It tells migrants they must not 'touch or fondle people without their permission' or urinate or spit in public.

It also warns: "People may find it intimidating to be stared at, whistled at, shouted at or followed."

On weapons, it says: "It is against the law to be in possession of knives, gas sprays or weapons of any kind in a public place.

"It is against the law at all times to have a gun without a licence.'

Immigration Minister Liam Byrne said it was important to take into account the views of organisations such as the police when considering immigration levels.

•Britain is a society increasingly fractured along ethnic lines and Government departments are not doing enough to tackle discrimination, a report warns.

In its final assessment of the state of race relations, the Commission for Racial Equality urged ministers to make equality a 'national priority'.

The report said: "Our society is fracturing.

"The pace of change in Britain over the last few years has unsettled many and caused people to retreat into and reinforce narrower ethnic and religious ties.

"Bonds of solidarity across different groups have reduced and tensions between people have increased."

The report added: "Britain, despite its status as the fifth largest economy in the world, is still a place of inequality, exclusion and isolation."

It found 15 Whitehall departments were failing to meet their obligations under race laws. The Olympic Delivery Authority was also criticised.

Report author, CRE director Nick Johnson, said: "While some public bodies such as the criminal justice agencies have made huge strides in the area of race relations, others have fallen down."