I believe “How to approach Deaf Suspects” are more important than “Deaf Victims”! Of course, automatic reaction is to be gentle to ALL Victims, right? So Suspects are important:

1. TTY/VP set up in jail AFTER office hours.

2. If hearing jailer makes call at night, therefore deaf jailer should be allowed to make calls and treat equally as the hearing jailer. In fact, one case- said sorry- the tty is locked up in the office at the front desk and has to wait til 8 am to get it. Deaf jailer could not make any calls. He also attempted to tell officer please to make call for him since no tty avail, officer said he cannot do that. and looked at hearing jailer who could make calls! DOnt you know that, officers, it is ILLEGAL to lock up the ttys, didnt you? Yes. ILLEGAL nowadays.

3. Get an interpreter as according to ADA law for law enforcement, police dept covers the cost no matter what. DO NOT deny an interpreter.

4. Always always carry a notepad and pen with the law enforcement officers. Don’t you see? Officers don’t bother to carry their own and make us work hard to get notepad and pen to write and jeopardize the situations too often!!! Every officer should be required to carry one unless they know sign language!

5. Requirement: At police academy to learn basic sign language before they graduate! NOT later on. On my research memory, in Maryland alone, WHOLE MD state had only ONE deaf culture class given for the law enforcement officers in the FULL year a few years ago. Only one out of MANY classes offerred free to the officers! and one was just enough for the quarter session. Deaf Culture? We dont need to let officers know our deaf culture. THey need to attend sign language class to learn basic sign language and also attend “how to approach deaf suspects” class. Not deaf culture. It is too general or broad subject.

6. Captain of each police or law enforcement agencies should be REQUIRED to attend ADA with law enforcement class every year to get update information and feedback and learn to deal with situations with their officers and bring the information to the ADA compliance officer at each department to give sessions to all officers in the agency every semester, NOT every year or NOT one time only. True story: one captain said no to have an interpreter provided when one deaf person requested one and sergeant wasn’t sure and asked the captain, he said no. so that deaf person went to his deaf wife for help. deaf wife pulled up the print out ada for law enforcement and made deaf husband bring to the captain and showed in his face. he gulped and demanded sergeant to get an interpreter right away when he learned that police dept is required to pay for an interpreter. police dept has a fund for that kind of requests according to ada for law enforcement fine print. captain then asked if he could keep the print out. Like he doesnt know about this?! Captain of the whole dept?! No excuses… Don’t you know that there are ADA compliance officer in each department or agency?? Yes. and what they do? Lousy job training the officers on ADA!

Many many more to name. Including should have “How to approach deaf suspects” booklets given across each agency and dept!!!! Even the police academy should include that in the training!

I want to do a paper on what appears to be a very big issue: police departments and communicating with DEAF people when stopped for traffic violation, arrested etc. (Started with reading Doug Bahl’s incident - of interest as I am from MN).

Are there and if so where can I find training materials that would be used for in-service training that I could maybe review? Any assistance would be greatly appreciated!

Thank you.
Kim

PS I have read lots about Drs etc who do not want to hire intepeters. I am going to school to be a chiropracter and feel ASL (also taking Spanish for same reason), will be very beneficial to clients and looks as though it is sorely needed.

http://signcasts.com/node/136

There he described fully what happened to him. This juror was so wrong if he wasn’t able to comprehend the reason Bahl reacted like that. How can he sleep with a good conscience? I hope he checks this blog again and read the testimony, then maybe he will feel remorse for making a travesty of social justice for a profoundly Deaf man who cannot talk verbally and letting a cop get away with brutal inhumane treatment *shuddering*

That is not the point. I have to state what I have said many times here:

1) I have seen it many times- when a police official realized that it’s a Deaf person- he/she will release and not file charges.

Your “slippery slope” has happened many times-yet I doubt that society has suffered.

2) There was no intent by Mr. Bahl to cause any problems-if you believe the officer’s own testimony. That said- since there no intent, he should not have been found guilty. If you want to, please read the Minn. Statue. It’s says: “with intent”.

Thus if you want to get technical (as jurors are asked to be), Bahl resisted and interfered with the officer doing his job. It doesn’t make it right, but when you give leniency based on what is a relative judgment (that the reaction to pull away is natural for deaf…maybe, but not for all) then you progress to a slippery slope. That may be what cinched it for the jurors.

As for Brian Riley, I learned long ago the dude loves to hear himself talk, so I don’t even read his posts anymore. I’ve found so many of them a huge twist on reality that I wonder if he’s taken his meds that day.

Jim Bob, there is a way to state your opinion that will not get deleted: in a form that promotes constructive dialogue. The posts above just show you are no better than the two- year-old who wants candy and wants it NOW! Even people who are staunch supporters of freedom of speech understand that in civil society, there are lines you do not cross and boundaries you RESPECT. There are times when free speech is not necessarily adding anything productive to a discussion. Self-censorship is a highly desirable trait and does not mean you are any less of an American.

I have a question. I am ignored Jim Bob’s comment seem not appriorated. By the way I have question for MZ about how many deaf injuries or died from cop shot in All of USA? I was keep want to know how many? I know California is one of these very recently less a years ago.
and otherwise you have recevied to get some count how much cop hurt or killed deaf people, yet?

I hope it did helped you,yet.