‘A delay between life and death’: Latino forum highlights lack of bilingual dispatchers as one of many communication gaps in Garfield County (CO)

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Garfield County’s emergency services operate with 21 people directly responsible for running dispatch but only two speak Spanish, a Garfield County official said to the county’s Latino Community Committee on Wednesday.

“But one isn’t very fluent,” said Tom Holman, Garfield County Emergency Communications Authority operations manager.

Instead, when Garfield County’s 911 dispatch center cannot directly communicate in Spanish, they use a third-party interpretation service…