Over a decade ago, a man of Asian descent frantically dialed 911 to report a bar shooting that had erupted along South Hollywood Road in Houma.

The only problem was, the man spoke little to no English, making it difficult for him to communicate critical information to dispatchers, said Mark Boudreaux, Terrebonne Parish Communications District executive director.

“The only thing he could say (and we could understand) was ‘bang, bang,'” Boudreaux said, adding he was ultimately located through a public pay phone he was using in the parking lot of the bar. “We knew right away that we had to send police out there. Luckily, there ended up being no casualties.”

That incident spurred Boudreaux into making sure his agency provided appropriate language translation services for foreign callers who may have difficulty communicating in English.

Shortly afterward, Terrebonne 911 dispatchers started calling Language Line for help, a Monterey, Calif.-based company that provides 24/7, on-the-spot phone translators for callers, he said. The agency has been using the service ever since.

Language Line offers translators for over 200 languages, including Spanish, Vietnamese and Cajun French, which are considered some of the most common types of languages that need further assistance, Terrebonne and Lafourche dispatchers said. Over 95 percent are Latin American callers who speak Spanish and often work on the coastal shipyards, they added.

Other callers have spoken Romanian, European French, German, Russian, Arabic, Filipino, Mandarin Chinese and Cantonese, Boudreaux said.
Lafourche dispatchers also obtained the same services around the same time as Terrebonne, said Katie Zeringue, Lafourche Parish Communications District executive director. Although she can’t recall one landmark incident, Zeringue said that inclusive 911 access was a priority when she first took office in 1994.

“You want to help everybody in this parish, and if you have that language barrier, then you can’t provide this service that people need,” she added.

These days, Boudreaux and Zeringue say there haven’t been any other major crimes or public safety concerns that have been reported by a foreign 911 caller. While some end up being domestic disturbances, most calls by foreigners consist of hang-ups, reports of suspicious activity or people mistakenly dialing 611 to ask to refill their cellphone minutes, officials said.

Typically, the calls happen on weekends while workers are at the shipyards and the occasional incident may occur, said Terrebonne 911 dispatch supervisor Katie Aucoin.

Despite a potential language barrier, it’s easy to judge the severity of an incident by a person’s tone, Zeringue said.

“When a person begins speaking and they sound hysterical, you can tell it’s a major emergency,” she added. “Some of our dispatchers will know basic words in Spanish and they’ll say ‘Un momento, por favor,’ (One moment, please) before putting them on hold so they can get an interpreter on the same line who will translate for them. Then we notify the proper agency and transfer over the person (making the complaint) and the interpreter to them if they have additional questions.”

These calls can take between four and 10 minutes until a first responder is dispatched to the scene, Boudreaux said. A regular English-speaking call will only take one to two minutes because there is less of a process, dispatchers said.
Since Language Line calls are few and far in between in both parishes, they are not considered a huge cost investment by the agencies, particularly due to the pay-per-use nature of the service, Boudreaux and Zeringue said. Last year, the Terrebonne district only spent $2,049 while Lafourche spent up to $1,302, according to 911 phone records.

Zeringue said Language Line is more cost-effective than requiring bilingual training for the district’s employees. However, Boudreaux said he ended up sending one of his dispatchers to a crash course in Spanish, which enabled him to correct a Language Line interpreter when an address was misreported.

In 2014, Zeringue said only 93 out of over 58,000 calls in Lafourche required a bilingual interpreter. Terrebonne had over 78,000 calls including Language Line and non-Language Line calls, but Boudreaux could not provide a breakdown.

Boudreaux said there may be more of a need to provide language-friendly services for public safety agencies, particularly as Terrebonne’s population continues to grow and attract more foreign workers to the area.

In addition to translation services, both Terrebonne and Lafourche 911 Districts also offer special texting and televideo services so hearing- and speech-impaired residents can report complaints, as required by federal and state regulations.

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