At a time when Americans remain divided over hot button issues likeartificial intelligenceandpolicing, some say new technology is helping officers break down barriers and connect with their communities.
Officers in dozens of police departments around the country are using a variety of devices to instantly communicate with themillions of people in the United States who primarily speak a language other than English.
Officer Jaclyn Douillard is one of them. While on patrol in Tampa, Florida's historic Ybor City neighborhood, Douillard sometimes found herself calling in a bilingual colleague to help facilitate conversations with residents or tourists multiple times a week.
But when Douillard recently encountered a Russian woman whose purse had been stolen, she said she was able to get a detailed description of the missing items all on her own - thanks to her body camera. The device, produced by Axon, comes equipped with real-time translation capabilities.
"It has been a significant change in our day-to-day just interactions with the community, and you can just see them light up and have a different response when they're being heard in their own language," said Douillard.
The rollout comes a critical time: Earlier in 2025, PresidentDonald Trumpdeclared English the nation's official languageandAttorney General Pam Bondidirected federal agencies to review any "unnecessary multilingual offerings" currently offered and consider ending them.
More than 67 million people in the United States speak a language other than English at home and at least 38% say they speak English less than very well, according toCensus datareleased in June.
Without proper assistance, people who have a limited ability to read, write, speak or understand English "risk wrongful detention and arrest, inadequate representation, and other adverse outcomes that can further exacerbate inequities" in the criminal justice system, Meghan M. Ballard, who coauthored a report on language access in the justice system for Spanish speakers, said in astatement.
Though the technology has been widely lauded for making translation services more accessible,concerns have been raised about its use in high-stakes interactions like asylum cases.
Dozens of departments deploy machine translators
Axon declined to share how many police departments are using Axon Assistant, but officers from law enforcement agencies inColorado,IllinoisandIndianahave spoken publicly about their experiences using the live translation feature.
Before the Campbell Police Department acquired new Axon body cameras in July, officers had to rely on live translation service, which caused issues and even officer safety concerns at times, according to Chief Gary Berg. The investment proved its worth almost immediately when an officer used the translator to communicate with a driver who spoke Vietnamese during a traffic stop, Berg said.
The technology proved so useful inCampbell, a diverse California city of about 43,000 people, he said the department even ordered body-worn cameras for its records staff.
"I've been in law enforcement for over 30 years, and I think for us this is an extremely exciting time period because we're seeing how technology is creating safer communities and allowing us to serve our community better," Berg said. "And I mean, that's what modern policing should look like: Smart, inclusive and built on trust."
Axon isn't the only company helping bridge these language gaps. Police departments in 19 states across the country are working with Pocketalk, which offers a handheld device and a smartphone app that translates over 90 languages in real time, the company said.
The technology, which was initially deployed in healthcare and education settings, first converts speech to text, according to general manager Joe Miller. He said the text is sent through a series of "translation engines" and then read aloud to the listener. The company uses artificial intelligence to eliminate awkward pauses and filler words.
The "exchange of data, server flow and information and data encryption all happens almost instantaneously at the touch of a button," said Miller.
Can technology replace human translators? Should it?
Miller believes in the value of translation devices, but acknowledged people will always have a role to play in sensitive situations.
For people working as translators, high-stakes asylum cases are one of the most pressing concerns.
Ariel Koren,the executive director of Respond Crisis Translation, said her organization has helped a number of asylum seekers challenge deportation orders predicated on mistranslations from machine translators.
Even if the technology works perfectly, Koren believes its "cruel" to use in contexts with such serious consequences. The real need, she said, is increased access to skilled human translators.
The spread of machine translation in the criminal justice system has become a "really dire situation," Koren said.
"It's really exacerbating as opposed to helping to bridge language barriers or to alleviate systemic language deprivation," she said. "It's actually worsening it because with the rise and usage of machine translation comes the, how would I say, the false perception that humans are somehow less needed as interpreters."
But people like Jeff Munks, a former law enforcement officer and consultant for Pocketalk, say the technology provides a complement to - not necessarily a replacement for - traditional translation services.
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The technology allows police to engage in casual conversations with non-English speakers as they walk their beats - interactions that departments likely wouldn't be willing to pay a human translator for, said Munks, co-founder of LanguageLine Solutions, which provides access to a worldwide web of human translators.
Proponents of machine translation, like Berg, tend to focus on how the technology has allowed officers to foster deeper connections with their community.
"Axon found a way to make technology more human," said Berg.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY:Police, big tech think these translation tools can break down barriers
