Little known facts...

Very few people know that whenever a non-citizen of this country is arrested, he must be given the opportunity to notifiy his country's Consul to the United States.  A police officer must advise the arrestee of that right and ask them if they want the police to contact their consulate.   

In some other cases,  the officer is required to contact the consulate, regardless of the desires of the arrestee.  There are about 56 countries which by treaty require US law enforcement officers to make Consular notification whenever one of their citizens is arrested in the United States. ( Albania, Belarus, Ghana, Sierra Leone, and the United Kingdom are some, just to name a few.)

One of the first questions a police officer should ask a person whom he suspects is not a US Citizen, is "Are you a U.S. Citizen?"   The Greenville Police Department maintains a list with the telephone numbers and cities of every Consular Office in America, so that the officer can call that Consul and notifiy someone there that one of their citizens has been arrested by the Greenville NC Police Department.

In some cases,  Consular offices may provide legal assistance to the defendant.  They may assist with family issues, or may even visit the defendant to make a determination about the nature of their arrest.

Every year police officers receive a brief refresher training lesson about this requirement for Consular Notification.  The US State Department provides every police department with a summary of the law, as well as small index cards for the officers. These index cards summarize the required procedures and they list those countries that require Consular Notification.

It's just one more detail every police officer must remember in the course of doing their jobs.