[blindlaw] Law Enforcement Officers Seek Assistance

[Peter Donahue]

Good evening everyone,

    If we say that the blind are normal in every respect except that we
can't see why the need for all of this concern? The police should handle us
the same as they would anyone else. From first-hand experience I wouldn't
expect them to deal with me any differently than they would others.



Peter Donahue


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Randolph Cabral" <randolphc at kbti.org>
To: <blindlaw at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Wednesday, February 27, 2008 5:37 PM
Subject: [blindlaw] Law Enforcement Officers Seek Assistance


I wanted to share some questions I received today from a couple of law
enforcement officers that perhaps others could help me with accurately
responding to.

The officers wanted ideas on how they can assure a person who is blind of
their official identity.  According to them, their identification
information is printed and laminated.

Too, they wanted to know if there are any ideas on how to help them
establish that a blind person is making a police report or contacting the
station if by phone.  (To this inquiry I suggested that their calls if
made from their homes could possibly be flagged somehow when coming into
the police department or 911 calls, much as they do here for person who
are deaf or hard of hearing).

It is my understanding that here there has been a system put in place that
when a person who is deaf or hard of hearing makes a call to a police
station, something cues the system letting the police department or 911
know the person is deaf or hard of hearing, at least something comes up,
perhaps on the caller ID at the police station, that the person whose name
the phone is registered to is deaf or hard of hearing. I believe this also
applies to the fire department.

Perhaps anyone reading this would know if there is a similar system or
some type of system that is in use in their area that reveals that a call
is being placed from the residence or phone number of a person who is
blind.

Another question had to do with directions or orientation.  If a police
officer asked or directed a blind person to turn around and raise up their
shirt to the middle of their stomach, is their any particular way to
communicate this, to be clearly understood?  Or if asked to take, a
certain number of steps to the right or left, forward or backward, is
their any particular way to communicate it, especially if there is some
type of obstruction nearby?

One of the office said that neither he nor the other office was suggesting
that they are having problems with blind persons breaking the law, it was
just that they knew of no specific training or information regarding
persons who are blind, and could use any help they could get.

So, if anyone has any suggestions that I could pass on I would appreciate
it.

Personally I think the answers to some of these questions are common
sense.  However, I think it is possible that the officers may be confusing
blindness with being deaf or hard of hearing.


Thanks,

Randolph


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