Anyone can register and get jobs in police stations
I created a profile on ALS linguist lounge some time in December; I was automatically assigned to Tier 2. I never attended any sort of ALS assessments and was not issued with any sort of ALS identification. I started to receive Tier1 job offers straight away. I explained to the ALS representative that I was not interested in the job offers for a few reasons.
1. I have never been assessed by ALS.
2. I have never been issued with any ALS form of ID.
3. I was strangely assigned to Tier2 in the interim, why would I be offered Tier 1 jobs?
4. I had language X on my ALS profile, but was strangely enough also offered jobs in other sister languages.
The number of job offers increased day by day, I finally agreed to attend an assignment yesterday at a Police Station. I just wanted to see how the interpreting system works, I accepted this offer for my own experience to examine the ALS interpreting system from the inside.
I was not advised by ALS what language I would be interpreting for, but was told instead to attend a police station and take a victim statement from a national of X country. This was my first time ever to take a victim statement. I took the statements, but obviously not in a professional way.
From my personal experience, I found that anyone can create a profile on ALS linguist lounge and start taking important jobs of interpreting/translation straight away. It doesn’t require any qualifications, experience, security clearance, Criminal Record Bureau checks or passing any assessments.
I found the ALS desperation not only unprofessional but also intimidating in a sense that the lack of professional interpreters in the judicial and legal system can affect humans and their future. Victims may not be able to get justice and perpetrators may not be punished for their criminal activities.
