I was pleased to read the article presented in an internet newsletter today that I had to ask permission from Lorrie Kosinski, who is a certified sign language interpreter for Denver Commision for People with Disabilities to reprint her article here. I feel this is an excellent example why police CAN be trained to work with the Deaf community! We only need to have motivated deaf instructors (in this article, Bonita Adair and Tammy Rydstrom) and agencies (the Denver Commission, the Denver Police Academy, ASL Essence and DOVE) determined to educate the law enforcement about the Deaf community and how to communicate with them. Other states CAN do that as well, if they have eager deaf teachers and agencies willing to work with each other! Here is Lorrie's article:
Denver City Employees & Police are Learning Sign Language
Denver City employees are excited about learning sign language and being able to interact directly with Deaf people who may come into their office. The Denver Commission for People with Disabilities has once again been offering American Sign Language (ASL) I-III classes which will run through May 23. Participants are learning basic signs, the ABC’s, and a little bit about the Deaf person’s world.
The Denver Commission, in conjunction with the Denver Police Academy, is also offering ASL I, II, and III classes for police officers, April-June, 2007. These classes focus on terminology and protocol for communicating with people who are Deaf within the law enforcement setting, and offer CEUs to officers taking the classes.
Big thanks to Bonita Adaire, a certified sign language instructor who is Deaf, for teaching all of the classes for City employees and Denver Police officers. Bonita runs her own business, ASL Essence, and has been teaching sign language classes for the City of Denver for the past four years. Prior to Bonita, several other dedicated members of the Deaf community have given of their time to teach the sign language classes.
Thank you also to Tammy Rydstrom of Dove for presenting to the officers during our ASL II class, and to the many Deaf people who have taken the time to meet the ASL participants through the City classes. Your involvement is so valuable to the City of Denver in helping it to become more accessible to people who are Deaf or hard of hearing.
Now this is not a one-time occurance! This is on-going for 3 years (from my knowledge but could be more than 3 years.) You see, it proves that if agencies and individuals are VERY determined, the law enforcement CAN learn to work with Deaf community!
4 comments:
No. Trainings and workshops has not worked well in the last 30 years with many agencies and organizations trying to educate these pigs to be aware of our needs.
The only option for them to understand us completely is to hire deaf people to WORK in their departments.
The interaction will enable them to do well. Workshops and training happen once in a while -- they forget. Remember, majority of cops are high-school graduates. Says a lot.
r-
You are entitled to your opinion as I to my opinion. We can agree to disagree. In THIS city, it is successful- especially after a nightmare that occured 4-5 years ago that had a deaf individual suing the police station for discrmination. Since that then, the agencies (deaf and law enforcement) work harder to help each other. More and more police call the appopriate agencies for deaf when it comes to certain crimes (rape and domestic violence for two examples, there's more examples in mind) for services for the victims.
"once in a while?" Re-read my article- they provide training several times a year. And it's not "once a while."
Again- I will repeat, it's your opinion that law enforcement cannot learn trainings because they are "once a while." I respect that and it may be so for many other cities, but for Denver, it's successful. Says a lot.
Jules,
You are definitely wrong!
The first poster is correct. Unless the Police Dept. hires a Deaf individual to work among them, the training will not be retained.
Training, as you may already know, goes by a very simple logic...if you do not use it, you will lose it. It does not matter how many training sessions you provide on the same subject.
You need to ask yourself, how often are these police officers interacting with the Deaf community on a daily basis?
Even from a Deaf Culture point of view, if you are not among them then you are not a part of the culture. In other words, if you are not involved then you do not know anything about it.
Last question, how can one honestly gauge that training or the workshop was successful? Do you guys go back every month to test their learning retention?
Coming from a law enforcement family, I can tell you this, there are more crimes and issues in the hearing world than there is in the Deaf world. It is a hearing world after all...and these officers have a great deal of work on their plate.
The exposure they get from your training is a good thing but that is not to say that it's successful. It should be viewed like any training--meaning you can only hope that they will be more aware or educated on this subject matter.
I am a certified police instructor in Oklahoma. I too am trying to put together a new class to teach across Oklahoma. I have been signing for 21 years and my very best friends in the world are deaf. I agree to a certain extent with everything that has been said on the previous posts. However, I feel that without any kind of training, then the conflict between the police and the deaf community will not ever end. Without the education of our police across the U.S. then simple issues will never be resolved. These classes are voluntary, and the police who attend are going on their own willingness to learn. All these classes can do is hopefully instill the drive for the police to continue to grow in the deaf community and to serve the deaf community with the highest quality of service. The deaf community deserves no less than the best. Just as the hearing community receives.
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