Forensic Transcription-Translation (FTT) Panel Webinar

Marco Hanson of Texan Translation interviews six experts in the specialty of forensic transcription-translation, or turning an audio-video recording in one language into a text in another language, in a format that will be admissible in court. FTT is generally considered to be a hybrid of legal translation and court interpreting, but demands other skills as well. Evidentiary recordings that may require FTT include bodycam and dashcam footage of traffic stops, questioning of witnesses, victims and suspects by police detectives, and wiretapped calls between suspects.
Panelists are:
- Javier Castillo, a state and federally certified interpreter whose team has provided certified FTT of thousands of audio files for federal and state courts, military and private clients.
- Carla Collins, a state-certified court interpreter with a Master’s Degree in Bilingual Legal Interpreting from the College of Charleston and more than 10 years working in FTT on a weekly basis.
- Chris Griffin, a federally certified interpreter since 2007 and has 18 years of experience doing transcriptions for Maricopa County in Phoenix, Arizona.
- Pilar Cal-Meyer, an applied linguist and a certified court interpreter. She co-authored with Dr. Roseann Gonzalez Dueñas the FTT chapter of Fundamentals of Court Interpretation: Theory, Policy, and Practice.
- Judi O'Brien, an ATA-certified translator with 25 years of experience in transcription and translation, employed by the Department ofJustice's Narcotic and Dangerous Drug Section in Washington, DC.
- Rey Romero, who has a PhD from Georgetown in Spanish, and teaches interpretation at the U of Houston - Downtown and is a certified translator. He also earned a Certificate in Analytical Linguistics Montclair State University.
Questions covered:
1. What is your process for evaluating, quoting and deciding whether to accept an FTT assignment?
2. What are some reasons that you would decline to work on a given FTT?
3. What challenges have you had with opening and playing source files? (such as proprietary file types)
4. What’s your ideal staffing for an FTT, and why: one person? Two? A team?
5. Which nonverbals would you note in a transcription and which - if any - would you omit? (coughs, chuckles, sniffles, sighs, doors closing, traffic passing, snorts, etc.)
6. Do you ever indicate the word that was emphasized in a phrase, such as “I didn’t kill him” vs. “I didn’t kill him”?
7. What kinds of footnotes, endnotes, or other TTE (transcription-translation expert’s) comments do you feel are important?
8. How do you decide how to punctuate your transcription of a given string of spoken words, when alternate punctuations change the meaning? (such as “I didn’t find… It was there” vs. “I didn’t find it. Was there…”)
9. Do you hear semi-bilingual police officers and other government employees whose mistakes in the source language lead to misunderstandings?

[@joelpeterhanson]

Many thanks!

[@beatrizbatres1951]

Thank you 🙏

[@Felix-qz9cy]

thank you...awesome information

[@stefmendez495]

Wow! Thank you for this wealth of information, I have always been curious about FTT and now I have a better idea.

[@TexanTranslation]

You're welcome!

[@dakah11]

This presentation is super helpful as someone who is interested in getting into this area of interpretation and translation.

[@TexanTranslation]

Thanks! Best of luck.