Agenda

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PUBLIC PROTECTION COMMITTEE

Meeting Date:	11/09/2015
Subject: Multi-Language Capability of the Telephone Emergency Notification System
Submitted For:	David O. Livingston, Sheriff-Coroner
Department:	Office of the Sheriff
Referral No.:	N/A
Referral Name:	Multi-Language Capability of the Telephone Emergency Notification System
Presenter:	Heather Tiernan, 925-646-4461	Contact:	Heather Tiernan, 925-646-4461

Information

Referral History:

This matter was referred to the Internal Operations Committee (IOC) in 2000 and was reassigned to the Public Protection Committee (PPC) in January 2008. The PPC met with Sheriff’s Office staff and Health Services Department staff in March 2008 to receive an update on the County’s efforts to implement multilingual emergency telephone messaging. The Committee learned of two events. First, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) was considering mandating that all Emergency Alert System (EAS) messages be broadcast in both English and Spanish. Second, the federally-funded Bay Area “Super Urban Area Safety Initiative” (SUASI) had selected a contractor to undertake an assessment and develop a five-year strategic plan on notification of public emergencies, with an emphasis on special needs populations. In 2009 and 2010, The Sheriff’s Office of Emergency Services reported to the PPC that little had changed since the March 2008 report.

The FCC rulemaking proceedings mentioned previously have not moved beyond the public comment phase. They were opened for comment in March of 2014, but no further action has been taken.

The SUASI completed a Five-Year Bay Area Emergency Public Information and Warning Strategic Plan in 2012 that mentions the gap in capabilities in reaching populations with access and functional needs and limited English proficiency. Unfortunately, the plan offers no solutions to assist in solving the dilemma of alerting in multiple languages.

It is unlikely that reliable, automatic, emergency translation capabilities will become available in the near future. This, coupled with technological difficulties in creating, delivering and disseminating alerts in multiple languages, has caused the issue of multilingual alerting to remain, in large part, unresolved. The Contra Costa County Community Warning System continues to explore potential ways in which it can effectively reach non-English speaking communities during emergencies. For example:

We are working with Spanish-speaking Community Based Organizations (CBO) to expand our reach to Spanish-speaking populations within our county.
We have developed outreach material in Spanish, to make community members more aware of CWS alerts.
We are exploring options with our primary CWS vendor to develop static messages for specific emergency incidents in Spanish (and other languages in the future). Determining how to disseminate and ensure correct delivery of non-English messages continues to be a challenge.

Referral Update:

Spanish radio station outreach:

During the Public Protection Committee meeting on April 13, 2015, Supervisor Gioia asked that CWS staff reach out to Spanish speaking radio stations who may be able to translate and rebroadcast CWS messages when the system is activated
The CWS staff found 10 local (non-national rebroadcasting) radio stations in the greater bay area. CWS sent introductory letters to each radio station and followed up with phone calls.
Several stations were closed or local rebroadcasters for stations located out of the area.
CWS attempted to make contact with all 10 stations – of those, 4 stations showed interest in playing some sort of CWS information during emergencies. Two stations have registered to receive alerts and agreed to play some sort of message in Spanish when the system is activated. Both have stated that they may not be able to translate the message due to low staffing and liabilities with mistranslating emergency information, but that they would at least play a sound clip translated into Spanish that advises listeners of an emergency in Contra Costa County and guide them to the CWS website.
Two additional stations initially showed interest, but have not responded to repeated contacts by CWS staff. Staff is hoping that once these stations begin to hear our alerts played on other radio stations, they will see the value in working with our unit. CWS Staff will continue to follow up with these stations.

Additional outreach to the non-English speaking community (primarily Spanish speaking)

In addition to outreach to Spanish speaking radio stations, CWS staff has continued to incorporate non-English speaking communities into our outreach efforts.
Throughout 2015, CWS staff has reached out to many elementary schools throughout West County, many of which include students with Spanish speaking parents. Several schools helped to arrange Community Warning System presentations, with translators, to parents of their students.
CWS has reached out to the Chambers of Commerce in the West County area in attempts to connect with non-English speaking organizations.
Our various outreach material has been translated into Spanish, including our CWS brochure and flyers with detailed information on how to Shelter in place (this is available in many languages).

Moving forward:

CWS staff plans to continue reaching out to non-English speaking communities and organizations throughout the entire county.
CWS staff are in the process of having our static refinery messages translated into Spanish and are working on developing a plan for the registration process so that people will be able to receive refinery alerts in Spanish.
If Board offices receive any requests for information, questions about warning, or suggestions for ways to connect with the non-English community (or any community group for that matter), please forward them on to CWS Staff for further assistance.

Recommendation(s)/Next Step(s):

ACCEPT a report on the status of the Community Warning System, including the Telephone Electronic Notification System (TENS).

Fiscal Impact (if any):

No fiscal impact.

Attachments
No file(s) attached.