Interpreting for the Security Forces

This research aims to achieve a broad knowledge about the skills that an interpreter who works for the Security Forces must assemble and to emphasize the ideal profile of an interpreter specialized in this field as well as the difficulties that the interpreter might face. In the first part, I will present the state of this domain: its definition, the distinction of the tasks that are performed in the national police, local police and the Spanish Civil Guard in conjunction with the current legislation in Spain. In the second part, I conduct a survey to several professionals of these three Security Forces to analyse not only the results to find out which are the linguistic needs of each one and how they cover these needs but also, in which aspects they stand out with reference to the joint work with professional interpreters.