The Buffalo Police Department's new plan for improving communication with the city's growing ethnic population has been recognized in a national report.
After concerns were raised about the difficulty non-English speakers have communicating with first responders in an emergency, Buffalo Police recently adopted a Language Access Plan. Mayor Byron Brown says it includes a telephone service that can translate 200 languages, civilian interpreters, and bilingual police officers.
"As well as a language card, where people can look at a card and point to the language that they speak. Each police officer carries the Language Access card. And so all of these ways make it easier to communicate with Buffalo's growing immigrant and refugee population," Brown said.
The city's newest population now includes more than 11,000 people. Brown says since 2006, the number of people who speak English as a second language has grown by 95 percent.
"Buffalo wants to be a welcoming city. We want to make sure that we are a city of opportunity for all people and that people are able to take advantage of the various services of city government. And this is just another way that we try to do that, through the Language Access Plan. And...[we] are very gratified, very pleased, that it has been recognized by the White House," Brown said.