W
ILMINGTON, N.C. — When someone calls local 911 and can’t speak English, help is literally one button away.
Nestled in the corner of dispatchers’ screens, among buttons that say EMS, Fire, School and Law, is one that says “Language.” All the dispatcher needs to do when someone who doesn’t speak English calls is click that button and a translator is on the other end of the line because of a service called LanguageLine.
Used in Brunswick and New Hanover counties, LanguageLine connects a dispatcher with someone who, if necessary, can determine what language is being spoken and from there transfer the call to a translator.
Deborah Cottle, New Hanover County’s 911 manager, said the county uses the service nearly every day.
“It is very easy,” Cottle said.
The service is overwhelmingly used for Spanish callers in both counties, officials said.
In September, for instance, New Hanover used the service 54 times for Spanish speakers. Other languages included one call each of French, Japanese and Korean. That kind of breakdown is typical for the last year, according to data provided by New Hanover County Emergency Management, with non-Spanish languages rarely having more than one call in a month.
