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�sRt er <br /> 6.1.C. - Page 3 <br /> ENGLISH IS NOT OUR ONLY LANGUAGE: <br /> ARE LOCAL LAW ENFORCEMENT AGENCIES PROVIDING <br /> MULTILINGUAL ACCESS TO OUTREACH PROGRAMS? <br /> Issue I Summary I Methodology I Background I Discussion I Findings <br /> Recommendations I Requests for Responses I Appendixes I Responses <br /> ISSUE <br /> San Mateo County currently has approximately 729,543 residents' and 305,069 (41.8%) of those <br /> residentS2 self-report that they speak a language other than English as their primary language. <br /> Almost half of those people (13 0,019), self-report that they do not speak English"very well".3 <br /> The law enforcement agencies for the 20 cities and towns located in San Mateo County <br /> (County),together with the San Mateo County Sheriff's Office, have the responsibility of <br /> protecting the County's residents. This responsibility has become more difficult to fulfill as <br /> profound demographic changes over the past 25 years have brought an increasing number of <br /> people into the County who speak English either as a second language or not at all. <br /> With these statistics in mind, the 2016-2017 San Mateo County Civil Grand Jury (Grand Jury) <br /> reviewed the community outreach programs provided by the law enforcement agencies <br /> countywide to determine how, or if, these agencies have modified their outreach efforts to <br /> include the non-English speaking population. <br /> SUMMARY <br /> The law enforcement agencies in San Mateo County provide an impressive array of outreach <br /> eventS4 and are to be commended for having interpreters at many of these programs for the <br /> languages widely spoken in the communities they serve. Outreach, for the purposes of this <br /> report, is defined as any activity providing services and programs to any population. For law <br /> enforcement agencies, outreach includes efforts in community awareness and engagement <br /> beyond the provisions of law enforcement services. In addition to delivering programs, outreach <br /> has an educational role in that it raises the awareness of existing services.5 All residents should <br /> have access to these programs. <br /> Awareness of these programs may be limited, however, either by their absence from the law <br /> enforcement agencies' websites or the lack of multilingual accessibility on those websites. <br /> Promoting these programs through agency websites and extending outreach in multiple <br /> languages is essential if English and non-English speaking residents alike are to benefit from <br /> them. The Grand Jury believes that including multilingual capability to the websites of the law <br /> enforcement agencies in the County may extend the awareness of, and increase the participation <br /> in, outreach programs by residents who speak English either as a second language or not at all. <br /> ' Statistical Atlas."Languages in San Mateo County."http://statisticalatlas.com/county/Califomia/San-Mateo- <br /> County/Languages.Accessed May 2017. <br /> 2 Ibid. <br /> 3 Statistical Atlas:All data are based on survey responses and were not verified in any other way. <br /> 4 Appendix A <br /> 5 En.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Outreach.Accessed May 16,2017. <br /> 2016-2017 San Mateo County Civil Grand Jury 1 <br />