Language accessibility grows as a priority for public safety officials
Police take security measures outside the Levi's Stadium as fans gather ahead of the Super Bowl LX Gameday in Santa Clara, California, on Feb. 8, 2026. Tayfun Coskun/Anadolu via Getty Images
One California county is turning to tech to better communicate with its non-English speaking population amid increasing fears about immigration enforcement in the U.S.
Amid increasing scrutiny of immigrant populations, some local governments are prioritizing facilitating communication, and ultimately trust, between public safety personnel and people who speak languages other than English.
In the heart of Silicon Valley, the Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Office is deploying a language translation platform to provide deputies an on-demand tool that enables them to communicate with someone between English and 92 other languages, local officials announced earlier this month.
Santa Clara deputies now have access to nearly a dozen mobile devices, similar to an iPhone, or a translation app on their county-issued work phones that deliver real-time audio and text translations to assist their interactions with community members, said Brooks Jarosz, senior communications officer for the Santa Clara County Sheriff's Office.
“Especially in public safety, timing is everything,” he said. “Sometimes you are headed to a very dangerous situation where seconds count, and when there's a language barrier, that can create a delay.”
The translation service is “a tool in the deputies’ tool belt to help bridge that gap and increase communication and response time. We also see it as a community bridge-building tool where we're able to better connect and communicate with residents and visitors alike,” Jarosz explained.
For example, Santa Clara County is the destination spot for tourism from large public events, such as the recent Super Bowl LX, the upcoming FIFA World Cup this summer and the Summer Olympic and Paralympic Games in Los Angeles in 2028.
But the main driver behind Santa Clara County’s adoption of the translation platform is the federal government’s heightened immigration enforcement efforts, which have stoked fear among immigrants and community members who speak a non-English language, Jarosz said.
More than 100 languages are spoken in Santa Clara County, which is home to approximately 767,800 immigrants, who make up 41% of the local population.
“We pride ourselves on a high level of service to anyone who comes into our community, and so we want people to feel that they can approach us, they can talk with us, if they're a victim of a crime, if they see something suspicious, if they just need help — we want to be able to interact with them in their first language with ease, and this is just a tool that helps us do that,” Jarosz said.
The county also launched a campaign last year to “reaffirm its unwavering support” for immigrants in the community by increasing awareness of government-funded services and programs that offer immigration-related assistance, such as support during interactions with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents or after arrest or detention, Santa Clara County officials said.
The translation platform is from Pocketalk, a translation solutions provider, and was awarded to the Santa Clara County Sheriff's Office through a $22,000 donation from the Santa Clara County Sheriff's Advisory Board. The funds will support a yearlong pilot phase before officials determine next steps based on deputies’ use of and feedback on the technology, Jarosz said. In the meantime, translated conversations will be kept for a 24-hour retention period but will not be used for investigative purposes.
Similar efforts are underway in various communities in the nation. In Hartford, Connecticut, for instance, officials deployed AI-enabled translation services during city council and Board of Education meetings late last year.
In December, former New York City Mayor Eric Adams directed city agencies, including the New York City Police Department, to consider how to leverage language technologies to improve municipal staff’s interactions with residents. The same month, the Flagler County Sheriff’s Office in Florida deployed AI-enabled translation software in officers’ body cameras to assist interactions with the public.
Indeed, state and local leaders across the U.S. have ramped up their efforts to improve language accessibility, with nine states and 31 local jurisdictions enacting new language access laws or policies since 2020, according to a report released last month from Migration Policy Institute’s National Center on Immigrant Integration Policy.
Efforts to improve language accessibility in government operations “enhance public safety and emergency response, and improve the overall effectiveness of government programs,” the report stated.
For public safety entities like the Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Office, Jarosz said, “if there are tools and ways that we can leverage technology … to help us keep communities safe, communicate better and build bridges, that's what we want to invest in.”