The Lancaster County District Attorney’s Office, Lancaster County Chiefs Association, Communication Essentials, Church World Service, CRIMEWATCH, Viable Media Solutions, and the Center for Sustained Engagement with Lancaster – Franklin & Marshall College have partnered in the creation and completion of the Lancaster Language project.

The project consisted of videos aimed at bridging language barriers between law enforcement and citizens in the community that may not speak English.

The video projects begin with Lancaster County District Attorney Heather Adams, Manheim Township Police Chief Tom Rudzinski, East Hempfield Township Police Chief Jen Brubaker, and Columbia Borough Police Chief Jack Brommer welcoming citizens to their respective communities.

“I want to credit law enforcement in Lancaster County for working in collaboration with community organizations to build peace and trust with residents of different cultures and recognizing the critical role that they can play in bringing these new residents into the fold of American life,” District Attorney Adams said.  “Community outreach can go such a long way in building trust and changing perceptions that are necessary for everyone’s safety.”

The videos show and explain what to do during a traffic stop and have voice-overs in five languages: Arabic, English, Nepali, Spanish, and Swahili. The foreign languages were chosen giving consideration to the number of refugees resettled in the area and addressed populations that could immediately benefit.

In addition to the videos, the collaborative effort produced language cards that were distributed to immigrants in the Lancaster area. The cards list the recipient’s name, native language, and a designated person with whom an officer or other official might contact if needed.

The project began with the brainstorming of Communication Essentials CEO Amer Al Fayadh, Church World Service Strategic Community Partnerships Officer Matt Johnson, and the Chiefs of Police to figure out a way to bridge the gap between immigrant communities and local law enforcement.

Al Fayadh is an immigrant himself and realized other members of the immigrant community in Lancaster, who were recent arrivals or less connected through personal or professional status, could have hesitancy to interact with public officials.

“Many immigrants and refugees may fear and distrust the governing systems in the U.S. based on their prior experiences, and we want to change that,” Al Fayadh said. “We want people to feel safe when interacting with the police and to trust that the police will be on their side.”

Al Fayadh thought of this project aiming to create strong relationships built on trust between police and community members, which are essential to economic prosperity and maintaining public safety. This project was also developed to avoid misunderstandings triggered by miscommunications based on mutual misguided perceptions.

Al Fayadh and Johnson approached local police leaders and a local technology company, CRIMEWATCH, was asked to help organize the creation of the educational videos to distribute to the community.

Communication Essentials was vital in translation efforts. The Lancaster County-based social enterprise provides document translation, interpretation services, language access consultation and diversity training.

Church World Services helped connect local law enforcement with refugee leaders and collaborated on the video script; the organization opened locally in 1987 and has welcomed over 7,000 new neighbors to peace and safety in southcentral Pennsylvania since opening its doors.

“This project has provided amazing opportunities for immigrant groups to get to know police officers and help overcome past experiences where police officers in their home countries were not there to serve or help the people,” Johnson said.

The Center for Sustained Engagement with Lancaster (CSEwL) – Franklin & Marshall College assisted in the project through its Community Leadership Award program that supports Lancaster in building community and maximizing impact on all members of our diverse community.

The CSEwL is a hub for generating new avenues of inquiry, initiatives, and research collaborations between Franklin & Marshall College and diverse constituencies in Lancaster County.

"We are proud to support Amer Al Fayadh as one of our inaugural Community Leaders in this transformative project that helps build bridges and understanding in our community," said Dan Ardia, Faculty co-Director of the CSEwL.

CRIMEWATCH™ is a York County-based, public safety technology company that specializes in transparent sharing of public safety information and includes proprietary technology to share and remove information from internet search engines and social media.

CRIMEWATCH provided funding and resources that included the help of a York based-video production company, Viable Media Solutions, to create and manage the video production.

“This was a challenging project,” said Jesse Lapp, President of Viable Media Solutions. “Filming the video was the easy part, editing to fit the unique characteristics of the languages was totally new for us. We look forward to helping on more of these in the future.”

All the videos can be found at these respective YouTube links:

District Attorney Heather Adams:

English - https://youtu.be/IL5DO1Mp3tQ

Arabic - https://youtu.be/Xb6v8Ssgniw

Spanish - https://youtu.be/aRCcxEdY_B8

Swahili - https://youtu.be/F0RscHg1NDA

Nepali - https://youtu.be/I7KBHGNyMlk

Manheim Township PD Chief Rudzinski

English - https://youtu.be/E2B4oJOQUYM

Arabic - https://youtu.be/rwiP5b12mhk

Spanish - https://youtu.be/NOybaSxlyFg

Swahili - https://youtu.be/Rr-_wBaGWXY

Nepali - https://youtu.be/O0bnHAfMz-U

East Hempfield PD Chief Brubaker

English - https://youtu.be/Qb1ArvUXOG4

Arabic - https://youtu.be/R_ykq2LEl0Q

Spanish - https://youtu.be/_cV_Qp3zPRs

Swahili - https://youtu.be/4oFzrth0FqI

Nepali - https://youtu.be/--KCxGN474s

Columbia Borough PD Chief Brommer

English - https://youtu.be/8-wh4EmbZAc

Arabic - https://youtu.be/2oj-PS7MYsk

Spanish - https://youtu.be/CbAsKrUlab0

Swahili - https://youtu.be/LIg4TGi19EY

Nepali - https://youtu.be/xqRDiH697s