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JUN -81993 TO: Board of County Commissioners TBROUGH: Jim Chandler,, C unty Administrator FROM: Doug Wright Director Emergency Services DATE: May 16, 1993 U BOOK 89 pw 777 M JECT: Approval of AT&T Language Line Services for E911 Public Safety Answering Points and Emergency Operations Center It is respectfully requested that the information contained herWir'nii —be given formal consideration by the Board of County Commissioners at the next regular scheduled meeting. DESCRIPTION AND CONDITIONS: Indian River County E911 Public Safety Answering Points and Emergency Operations Center has no formalized means of language based telephone interpretation for non-English speaking people. More than 20 million people who live in the United. States speak a language other than English. If no one happens to be in the. dispatch center who speaks Spanish,, Haitian, or another common language now used in Florida, the chance is great that a delay will occur in getting assistance to the person in need due to the language barrier. AT&T now off ers a new, innovative way to serve emergency agencies to whom English is a foreign language. AT&T Language Line Services provides over the phone access within moments to highly trained interpreters -in over 140 different languages. This service is available around the clock 365 days a year. Staff has been discussing this service with AT&T and the company has proposed an Interpreter Service Agreement for a one time service initiation charge of $499.00. Actual time on-line with an AT&T Language Line Interpreter is billed at $2.25 per minute for Spanish and $2.55 per minute for all other languages. There is a monthly minimum charge of $50.00. Training for emergency personnel is included in the one time cost stated above. Funding for this service is available in existing budgets and staff is seeking expenditure authorization for this needed service. ALTZRNATIVES AND ANALYSIS: Spanish is the most common language now being experienced by dispatchers and emergency personnel. However, it should be noted that approximately 12.5 percent of Florida's residents speak a primari language other than English. With the number of foreign tourist who visit our area, it is anticipated that emergency services will be called on to service an increasing number of people with language barriers. Currently, several other Florida counties are using this service and speak highly of the timely and. very helpful servicer especially when an emergency occurs and the subject is already very excited. 24 M M M