Thread: Lost in translation: Few local 911 dispatchers speak Spanish

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Lost in translation: Few local 911 dispatchers speak Spanish

By Robert Gutsche Jr

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RACINE COUNTY - Julie Scherer, a Racine County 911 dispatcher, can hardly understand many of the people who call her for help. Even in English, their worlds are unclear and hurried.

But it's worse when the caller speaks only Spanish.

Scherer speaks only English.

And it was just last month that she learned her first Spanish phrase from a co-worker.

"Basically, I don't know any Spanish," said Scherer, who has worked as a county dispatcher for 15 years. "I can do house numbers if we go one by one ... Now I know how to ask people to hold on."

Scherer's not alone in her struggle. None of the 18 full-time county dispatchers who answer all 911 cellular phone calls in the county and land line phones for several communities speak Spanish fluently; only one of the 25 dispatchers for the city of Racine is fluent in Spanish.

And supervisors at the city and county levels, some dispatchers say, haven't been responsive in giving them more Spanish training or lists of basic words the dispatchers say would help them in emergencies.

Instead, both sets of dispatchers can call Language Line for help, a California company the departments contract with to translate conversations, which is better than training the dispatchers in partial Spanish, officials say. (See more on Language Line in today's paper on page XX.) Still, dispatchers - many who are going off of the little Spanish they learned in high school and college - complain they struggle with calls and fear that poor communication over 911 calls will lead to bigger problems.

Already, some Spanish speakers just give up during their calls for help because they can't understand the dispatcher.

"One of the biggest difficulties is getting (Spanish-speaking callers) to stay on the line long enough for us to get the Language Line," Scherer said. "I had a call the other day and I said, `Oh, I don't speak Spanish' and he hung up."

Call shows danger The Journal Times obtained a cell phone 911 call answered by the county earlier this summer that shows the difficulties many dispatchers face without Spanish training. (See more this story in today's paper on page XX.) That call, made in June by a man who was running from four others after being shot in the head by either a BB or a paint ball, shows the time it can take to understand a caller if the dispatcher doesn't speak Spanish.

Using a Language Line translator in California, the 911 call took at least two minutes for the caller to talk with a Spanish translator. It took another minute and a half for the proper dispatcher to understand the problem and two more minutes for police to arrive.

This response time is significantly slower than if the call had happened in English, officials say, but those same officials contend Language Line is more effective for fully understanding a caller's language.

Explaining the translation Through the Language Line service, the Sheriff's Department pays a per-minute fee for the language that's being translated over the phone, totaling about $26 a month. The department has used Language Line since late 2003.

"The program is incredible," said Sgt. Robert Kacmarcik, who learned a bit of Spanish on his own when he was a Racine County Sheriff's deputy. He now supervises the county dispatch office at Ives Grove.

Before the translation service, "we never had the ability to converse in different languages with our citizens," he said. "We had no idea what we were saying."

The slow speed that can sometimes occur because of a three-way call between translator, dispatcher and caller is still an improvement, Kacmarcik said. "Now we have a way to communicate," he said. "Sure it takes another `X' seconds, but is `X' seconds better than us not do anything?" Some concerned about translating Yet some dispatchers and one former law enforcement official believe something needs to change. They say Spanish-speaking dispatchers would help in emergencies, especially as that population grows here.

According to the 2000 Census, Racine County has 7,353 Hispanics age 5 or older who speak Spanish. Most of those - 5,920 people - live in the city of Racine.

Of that total county population, 74 percent, or 5,449 people, spoke English very well or well, while 26 percent, or 1,904 people, spoke English not well or not at all.

It's hard to tell how many people who complete Census forms and live in the county speak English, but we do know from the government's survey in 2000 that 12 percent of those living in Racine speak a language other than English inside the home, compared to the state's 7 percent.

So what do these population numbers mean for people in law enforcement? Possibly trouble, said Wally Rendon, 59, a retired 24-year veteran with the Racine Police Department.

Rendon, who is fluent in Spanish, has been training law enforcement and health care organizations in speaking the language since 1997. He retired from the police department in 1999.

"What (the population numbers mean) for people in law enforcement is the fact that when we are given a call we respond to the calls according to the calls," he said. "When dispatchers don't know the details (of a 911 call), responding help doesn't know what to expect. If you can't ask the questions, you don't know what you are heading into."

Full training not the answer Sheriff's Department Lt. John Hanrahan, who oversees the dispatch operation at Ives Grove, said dispatchers don't need to know languages other than English to do their jobs well and fast because they have access to Language Line.

"To what degree do you train somebody to recognize the basics?" he asked. "Even if we ever had everyone speaking Spanish, I don't think we'd want to go away from (Language Line). This is where someone truly is fluent in Spanish."

Dan DeMatthew, Racine's director of emergency services, which answers land line 911 calls and cell phone transfers in the city, said he would rather spend money on Language Line than on teaching Spanish basics. The city spends about $130 a month on translations.

The two both said hiring only Spanish speaking dispatchers would be discriminatory and that they might not find enough workers to speak the language and handle the stresses of dispatching.

"I think we are better off with professionals who do the interpreting versus just trying to train the total staff in the minimal and having possible misunderstandings done," DeMatthew said.

Yet even DeMatthew's one Spanish-speaking 911 dispatcher in the city of Racine - Marco Jaimez, who is also the only one of his kind in Racine County - says many of his coworkers need and want more Spanish training. "I think there should be some focus on a class," said Jaimez, 35. "I hear a lot of people that want to help themselves and help these callers."

- Journal Times reporter David Steinkraus contributed to this report.

Click here to discuss this story and to download an MP3 of a 911 call being translated from Spanish to English by local dispatchers, with the help of a company in California.



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911 Dispatching (in English and other languages) by the numbers 25 - Full-time emergency dispatchers for city of Racine 1 - Fluent Spanish-speaking dispatcher for the city of Racine 18 - Full-time Racine County 911 dispatchers 0 - Full-time Racine County 911 dispatchers fluent in Spanish 22,000 - Average number of 911 phone and radio calls answered by Racine County dispatchers each day 25 - 911 calls one county dispatcher gets each year in Spanish

Good for these invaders having trouble being understoood!

Now they get a little taste of how annoying and aggravating it is to try to get a SIMPLE order correct when one of them is working behind the counter at a fast-food restaurant.

Our family stopped going to any of them - not that we went that often - but we got tired of trying to give our order to an employee that didn't speak English.

Aaaarrrrgggghhh!!!!!!

GO HOME INVADERS!! YOU'RE NOT WELCOME HERE!