SIOUX CITY -- Fueled by adrenaline or paralyzed by fear, many people have trouble calling 911 during an emergency and explaining coherently what kind of help they need.

"You may understand a street (name) or very little until you get them calmed down," said Woodbury County dispatcher Louise Keleher.

That's when callers speak English. Imagine how difficult the task becomes when the person in crisis and the dispatcher don't speak the same language.

Authorities say increasingly, a language barrier poses an added challenge in efforts to provide emergency services to Sioux City residents. Only a half-dozen Sioux City police officers and none of the local dispatchers speak fluent Spanish, the most commonly encountered language.

Although the Woodbury County Communications Center, which dispatches firefighters, police officers, sheriff's deputies and paramedics, actively seeks secondary language skills in prospective employees, communications operations supervisor Wendi Hess said the agency hasn't been able to hire bilingual dispatchers.

Callers can speak to dispatchers in broken English, through their children or other relatives or, if necessary, through a telephone translation service law enforcement pays for.

Those tactics get the job done, Hess said, but they take time.

"Basically it takes twice as long to understand what's going on because everything you're asking is being relayed," she said. "It just takes patience and it takes a little more time to determine what's going on when you don't understand them."

Daunting challenge

Interpreter Sara Tello, of Mary Treglia Community House, said the language barrier can be so daunting it scares non-English speakers away from contacting authorities when they need help. Many fear they won't be understood or will be discriminated against because they can't speak English.

She recalled one woman who was being bullied and taken advantage of for 10 years by an English-speaking roommate.

The woman didn't know whom to ask for help because the roommate, who took the legal documents that proved her residency status and cashed her checks, threatened that if the victim ever went to authorities, she would tell police in English that the victim had robbed her.

"They intimidated her because she wouldn't be able to defend herself to police," Tello said.

Mary Treglia patron Ho Van Truong, whose primary language is Vietnamese, said he has been on both sides of the situation. He wasn't able to communicate with police, requiring someone to translate, when he first came to Sioux City. That has reversed since he's taken language classes, allowing him to translate for others now.

Ho has been a U.S. citizen since 1999 but still attends citizenship classes to brush up on his language skills.

His classmates at Mary Treglia said they, too, have struggled and have had to resort to interpreters or ask family members to translate for them in public situations. Now, they're trying to improve their English.

Dangerous situation

Although Sioux City police officers can turn to the language line or colleagues who speak another language, communication difficulties can be a real danger on the street.

"You can imagine a highly volatile, rapidly evolving, high-stress situation where you're unable to communicate orders to someone who poses a threat to you -- it can be life-threatening," Lt. Mark Kirkpatrick said.

Once the situation is under control, Kirkpatrick said, officers first try to find a translator from among those at the scene or an officer fluent in the language being spoken. If that isn't possible, they use the same telephone translation service used by the dispatchers.

In addition to her work at Mary Treglia, Tello serves as an on-call Spanish interpreter for police in rural Nebraska. She's done translation over the phone and in person but says in-person translation is best.

"It's easier because the person knows what you're telling (the police) and sees you writing what they're telling them," she said.

Neither is as good as being able to communicate one on one, Kirkpatrick said, especially when information is of a sensitive nature.

For that reason, he said, the police department sees foreign-language skills as a definite plus when hiring prospective officers. For existing officers, it offers training opportunities, including a Spanish-for-cops course taught by a South Sioux City police sergeant.

"It's always better to be able to speak directly to a person than through a translator," Kirkpatrick said.

Despite all the challenges, dispatcher Keleher said non-English speakers shouldn’t be afraid to call authorities. Even if they speak a less-common language, Keleher said dispatchers can use the telephone service to find out what’s going on.

“They shouldn’t be afraid, ever, to call us,” she said. “We have the resources necessary to find out what they need.”