Investigating international criminal activity

Guildhawk | 7 August 2023

The City of London Police is responsible for protecting the United Kingdom’s financial, residential and historic cultural centre in the heart of London, known as the Square Mile.

Introduction

This highly specialised police force, which leads the world in the development and use of innovative technology and partnerships to prevent crime, is the national lead force for the investigation of economic crime and is home to the Economic Crime Academy, Action Fraud, the National Fraud Intelligence Bureau (NFIB) and the Police Intellectual Property Crime Unit (PIPCU).

The Challenge

Working with overseas agencies

During an investigation into an international scandal, City of London Police were receiving a large amount of correspondence and documentation from their partner agencies across Europe.

To have translated these materials in their entirety would have been a prohibitively costly and time-consuming process.

The Solution

Guildhawk AMLiss process

After initial consultations to determine the scope of the project, Guildhawk recommended our AMLiss process – an abstraction service used to translate content according to conditions such as key words or specific information.

It meant our specialist language professionals were only translating the content actually needed – driving efficiency for the police force and helping them move their investigations forward more quickly.

A Guildhawk linguist, vetted and verified according to our stringent processes, was also stationed alongside the UK detectives working on the case to read, review and understand all that was said during interviews, evidence-gathering and, eventually, in court.

After the project was complete, we received excellent feedback from investigators and the Crown Prosecution Service – and all with meaningful cost savings for City of London Police.

The Results

Leveraging innovative translation solutions

The implementation of Guildhawk's AMLiss process proved to be highly effective for the City of London Police in addressing the challenges they faced during the investigation of the international scandal.

The key results and benefits achieved through the solution were as follows:

Cost Savings: The City of London Police experienced meaningful cost savings by translating only the necessary content. This approach eliminated the need for expensive and time-consuming full translations of all the received correspondence and documentation.

Time Efficiency: By focusing on translating specific information based on conditions like keywords, the police force expedited their investigations. The reduction in translation time allowed them to move forward more swiftly in gathering evidence and building their case.

Enhanced Collaboration: Having a Guildhawk linguist stationed alongside the UK detectives during interviews, evidence-gathering, and court proceedings proved to be highly beneficial. This linguist's expertise in language comprehension and translation contributed to smoother communication and improved collaboration between the international partner agencies and the City of London Police.