This is America, if you can't understand your rights, don't commit a crime. This opens the flood gates to a loophole that can allow criminals to get off because they didn't know their rights. If they see it written, how do you know they can read.

If you live in the United States, learn to speak the language. That makes it easier on everyone. It's our language and I suggest that everyone use it.

Good thing this law didn't exist when our forefathers set up shop in Jamestown! Don't know if I could learn Algonquian!

Good, making the police responsible for a miranda warning to an arrestee in that person's native language is a waste of their time, and is not their responsibility. Politically correct garbage. Del. Mark Keam should be flogged, or tarred and feathered for this.

Thanks to Delegate Keam for bringing this to our attention. I don't see how we can expect our police officers to fulfill their Constitutional obligation to inform people of their rights if we don't give them the communication tools they need. In this day and age, when we all have the world at our fingertips, it seems that it we could make Miranda warning language accessible to officers in the field in almost any language. I'm glad to hear that Fairfax County and the Town of Vienna are making an effort. I think we should do more.

A few years ago, schools in California were required to provide second language instruction in the child's native language. (I don't recall if it was all California schools or just one system.) Problems occurred when students arrived who spoke obscure languages. The system had difficulty finding instructors who could speak the language.
The "unintended consequences" of a bill like this could be quite expensive and lead to guilty people getting off because of the bill. My knowledge of Miranda is limited to television shows and newspapers, but it seems to me that this would put additional stress on officers rather than helping them. As far as the people at Eden Center are concerned, I would think that enough of them spoke English well enough to understand what the police intended.
I think that, instead of requiring police to address them in their own language, that the government would be better off providing English instruction. We have too many different languages in Fairfax to accomodate everyone.

Sean Moron-

Did you not read the article? Such a "loophole" ALREADY exists! If a suspect is not advised of his Miranda rights in a manner that he understands, any statements made during an in-custody interrogation will be excluded at trial. This bill would have "closed" such a "loophole."

Close the loophole by requiring people to bring in a translator on their own dime; don't force taxpayers to pay for it!

There are phone translation services that will get on a 3-way call and interpret English to almost any language under the sun for about $2/minute, with native speakers. All you have to do is set up the contract with one of these companies, you pay only for what you use, and it is available 24x7. My company's service desks use this and it works just fine. No need to hire a bunch of people who speak multiple languages, who might be needed at odd times of the day/night.

With smartphone technology, it would be possible to have the Miranda rights played back in many languages. I suspect that a half dozen languages besides English would cover most of the people in Arlington County. Having those arrested understand their rights is crucial to being able to have an effective prosecution.