GLOUCESTERSHIRE Police has adopted a new tool to help communicate with vulnerable communities.

PocketComms has been launched to enable officers to speak to members of the public where English isn’t their first language or they may have a disability or learning difficulty.

Using a comprehensive set of vivid and simple graphics, PocketComms enables members of the public to indicate what service they need or explain a set of circumstances that may have happened to them. Officers can determine health, religious and dietary requirements as well as a section in the book explaining religious etiquette when visiting homes and religious meeting places. There is are copies of the book at Compass House, the county custody block as well as being distributed to officers in the field.

PocketComms is the brainchild of artist and professional illustrator James Wyatt who thought up the idea while serving in the Territorial Army in Afghanistan as the British Army’s only combat cartoonist. He developed it to help communicate with a group of teenagers in Kabul.

Chief Constable Suzette Davenport said "Gloucestershire Constabulary is always looking at new and innovative ways to enhance our service to the public. The Pocketcomms visual communication aide is a fantastic example of that and I welcome its introduction. Everyone knows the old saying that ‘a picture paints a thousand words’, and that’s precisely the concept here. Through the use of pictures our officers and staff will be able to facilitate communication more effectively with people where language may be a barrier – whether that’s people who are hearing or speech impaired, vulnerable people with disabilities or learning difficulties, or those people for whom English may not be their first language.

"This will be an invaluable tool in those situations where urgent communication and understanding are essential. It will also greatly reduce the current costs and time associated with waiting for interpreters or translators, although those services will also still be available.”

The language aid has been adopted by a number of forces in England along with the National Crime Agency and UK Border Agency. It has also been used by police forces worldwide including in The Netherlands, Germany and Hong Kong.