LA Official: Emergency Alerts Ineffective Because They're Mostly In English

Article publisher: 
CBS Los Angeles
Article date: 
28 August 2018
Article category: 
National News
Medium
Article Body: 

Los Angeles' chief auditor and accountant says the city's mass emergency notification system is not fully accessible because its messages are limited to mostly English.

A report released by City Controller Ron Galperin says the system known as NotifyLA is in need of a series of changes to be more effective and accessible...
 
...should translate notifications into other languages beyond just English and Spanish, the latter of which accounts for just 21 percent of alerts since 2014.

Galperin says EMD should provide translations into other Armenian, Chinese, Korean, and other “commonly spoken languages.” The report cites emergency notification systems within L.A. County and the Los Angeles Unified School District that each support a minimum of five languages. New York City offers pre-scripted emergency alerts in 13 languages, according to the report....