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    5.    
PUBLIC PROTECTION COMMITTEE
Meeting Date: 04/13/2015  
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.
Referral Update:
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:
  1. We are working with Spanish-speaking Community Based Organizations (CBO) to expand our reach to Spanish-speaking populations within our county.
  2. We have developed outreach material in Spanish, to make community members more aware of CWS alerts.
  3. 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.
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.

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