New Britain has rolled out the latest improvement to its anonymous tip line.
The city's tip line is now bi-lingual, allowing callers to leave their tips in Spanish.
Prior to Sept. 30, the city's tip line was only in English.
The city is hoping that their nearly 38 percent Latino population will be more comfortable leaving their information anonymously in Spanish.
Once tips are left, a Spanish-speaking officer will take down the information.
“That comfort level [and] understanding that, yes, we are working together to take down that language barrier is part of that,” said New Britain Police Chief James Wardwell.
“I think it’s a good idea because there are a lot of people I know that can’t speak English and if sometimes the family isn’t around to translate, like my family, we've always had issues with that so I’m always the one calling 9-1-1 in English to try to tell them there’s a problem,” Said Sheila Cartagna of New Britain.
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The call line is not intended to replace 911—but to further bridge the gap between the police department and its residents.
"Oftentimes folks do reach out and I can't give you specifics but the number of crimes that have been solved because of neighborhood involvement, people reaching out saying ‘hey, this might not be important’ but oftentimes it is important," said Chief Wardwell.
The Police Department hopes to implement a Polish anonymous tip line in the future.
You can call the tip line at 860-826-3199.
