Bridging the Gap Between the Deaf and Hard of Hearing Community and the Police

on. All right? So, I am
going to go ahead and turn it over to
Bonnie who will introduce our
presenter. >> Bonnie: Okay
thanks Debbie I am
Bonnie O'Leary the outreach
manager for NVRC and I would like
to welcome you all this evening to
our program
. Bridging the Gap between the Deaf and Hard
of Hearing Community and the Police
our speaker is
Master Police officer
Reanna Jacobson she is the
Community Outreach Officer for
the Fair Oaks station at
the Fairfax County Police Department
where she has served for
20 years. I am delighted
to introduce Reanna to you
this evening she will give you an
overview of the outreach program for her station
, and then focus on
concerns particularly to
deaf and hard of hearing residents. So, Reanna
thank you so much for your time tonight,
over to you.
>> Reanna: Thanks for the
introduction hello everybody my name is
Reanna Jacobson,
as Bonnie told you
I have been an officer here at Fair Oaks
for 20 years already.
So, I started out just as a
regular patrol officer I moved here
from Buffalo New York
and wanted a fresh start.
Wasn't really sure where
Fairfax was on a map but here I am
20 years later. So,
2004 I started the
domestic violence detective program here in
the county,
I did that for about two years
before my uniform and
my marked police car
were calling again and I went
back to patrol. Taken
two little breaks since
then I have two sons at home
. But I am currently
doing outreach.
So, two years ago they asked
if anybody would like to try
doing an outreach position
I wasn't exactly sure what that
even was, so I went to my
commanders and asked,
and they sort of
laughed and said are you interested
? I love trying new things and
I -- I am a talker, I am sure you
guys will know that by the end. So,
I offered to take that spot. And
I started a couple of days later.
So, two years later I am
still waiting for them to give
me an exact job description of
what I am supposed to be
doing. But
I do like that I don't have a
specific description. That means
that I can do anything
as long as it is helping to bridge the
gap between the police department
and the community. So some
of the things that we have tried in the last
couple of
years we figured we would start with the young
. So, I was even
going into the cafeteria at
school school, eating
lunch with elementary
school students for a couple of hours a
day a couple days a
week. You know, it's not all
about hey look at me, I am the
police. Some of it is just
being a friendly face. I
open yogurt, I help
them get their
string cheese open and we just
you know, learn that we are both
human. So it's nice
but they are not afraid just
in case something
did happen, you know, I always get
scared what if.
What if they were in a car
accident, and
their parents were unable to talk.
I wouldn't want a child to hide from me
. I would hope that they
would come forward and talk to me.
It's amazing how many hugs
and high fives I get after
a few months of going into the school to be
with the kids. A couple
other things they wanted me
to try was to get more involved in
community meetings.
You know the police department we
do a bunch of different things we
have officers on
bicycles we have officers
on motorcycles, we have officers
on boats, we have officers
in helicopters. If people
don't know what we are doing and what
we have available to help
, they are not sure how to even
reach out to us. So, again
, we are just trying to bridge the
gap. And make sure that everybody
knows that resources are
even available to them.
Another thing that was on my radar
was helping out with some of our houses
of worship. So, we all
watch the news we
see the very scary things that are happening
in the news. It's frightening
for everybody so for them to have a
person that they can call --
I mean everybody has seen a
police officer working a car accident,
or you know that time that
they might pull you over because you were
going a
little too fast
it's probably not a time that you feel
comfortable asking a simple question
like: How do I
start neighborhood watch. Or you know,
what crime happens in my neighborhood
? So outreach is
here. We kind of
just are the person who takes --
I never know what I am going to do
. On any given day. My
job changes very much
. So, I always giggle we are
in the "yes" business here.
So we are here to help.
How ever it may be.
I helped with bingo
in a senior home before.
And had coffee
with a cat even at
a senior home to bridge the
gap there we worry our senior
population can be victims of
scams and they are embarrassed to
tell their children or family that
they were a victim of a scam because of their
age, they are afraid that some of
their you know,
freedoms might be taken away from
them for a silly mistake
and so, we try to help
in that aspect too. So,
you will see us all over the place
. Each one of our
district stations there is actually
eight in total each
station has both a crime prevention officer,
and a Community Outreach Officer
. So outreach is the
newest position I was nervous that
it was possible we wouldn't find money in
the
budgeting but I think we have
all realized that this position
is necessary
, a police officer in patrol is
out trying to catch bad
guys and keep
people safe they don't have time for even
a nice
presentation with community members
where maybe we can both learn
from each other. That's one of the things
that I am truly here
for today is to learn
how we as the
police department can do better also
. So, even
with 20 years of experience
, I have only had a few occasions
where I have come in contact
with somebody who was hard of hearing
. One of them that pops
into my head immediately was
a 9-1-1 call
that we had received
dispatch wasn't getting an answer on the
other end of the 9-1
-1 they told me that they had
reached out through TTY to
see if maybe the person
could have been hearing impaired and
they didn't get a response. So,
they send me to
just a Pes
Pes 9-1-1 call
I don't know what I am going to the
person I am supposed to
meet when I knock on the door
she greets me immediately but signals to
let me know that she is hard of hearing
.
I don't know sign language.
So, I am -- I was a pretty
new officer at the time I will admit that
much, but
I almost felt a little bit
of panic. What
am I supposed to do with that call
call? Well, thank goodness
that woman who had called
9-1-1 had
also done another signal to me,
we all carry a notebook in
our pocket, we all carry
a pen in our pocket. So it was
very easy for the two of
us to communicate
back and forth with
writing each other notes.
It took a little extra patience
from both of us, but
it was okay and especially in that
case. Since truly, she didn't
have an emergency a bird had
fallen out of the nest and
she had it in a shoe
box so
thank goodness for the
first time neither of us was
overwhelmed it was an emergency
panic situation it was truly two
people trying to work together to get
animal control to help with that
bird.
So, that does actually
worry me though, what if --
what if we have an emergency
call someone calls 9-
1-1 now we know as a
police officer that when
somebody speaks Spanish it's very
easy for us to get an interpreter
on a telephone we make a
simple call from our cell phone,
and we talk back and forth to each
other.
But it's my understanding that we don't
have a program
just accessible to us
as a regular patrol officer on the
street that would even do sign
language. Actually, when we
have in progress busy
calls, something like
a violent crime against a
person. We
have police officers on
staff sworn officers that
also are interpreters of other languages
. I am sad to
tell you, we don't have a
police officer that is fluent in sign
language that you wouldn't have a person
in uniform that can
easily communicate. I do
think this is a problem.
And I unfortunately didn't really
realize before this that
we were
behind.
So, for that
case that I talked about for the woman
to motion with a notebook and a piece of paper
to write back and forth that worked
great in that scenario.
I would hope that if any of you
-- I know you see
the blue lights behind you, and you are scared
. Everybody is. I will be
honest I have been sleepy
on my ride before
and have seen the blue
lights behind me and my
heart skips a beat just a little bit. So
I understand that fear
factor behind everything.
However, for people who
need assistance
with that
officers may be almost at
a loss. We don't get
specific training to
people who are hard of hearing. So, if
you were so inclined
, that same little motion
, boy that was all I needed and
I felt instant
relief knowing that I could
easily communicate with somebody else. Now,
of course that was years ago
before we all had a cell phone in our
pocket. And so, I
assume there is probably
an app that people use
that is easier to
use an interpreter or
if you wanted to pick up your phone
and use something
like FaceTime
or a
similar app where you can see each
other's face through your cell phone so
we would be able to communicate.
We truly may lean
on you, we don't have all
of the languages available to
us when we need them.
So, truly we may rely on you
to help with that.
Any officer should be willing
to listen, help
, and to be
patient with you even
though this isn't our normal that
we do every single day with
communicating.
So, is there anything else? I apologize
I am not a PowerPoint person
. Some people love a PowerPoint
presentation to learn all about what
can be done. However, my
job as outreach, I
feel like that's a little on the
impersonal side. Well, and
I am a little older
and not awesome with computer programs
if I am being honest, but I
like being able to
face-to-face learn from each other.
So my experiences very
far have been good. I am
fortunate that there hasn't been
a serious
call that I have gone to where I needed
immediate assistance and
someone needed a sign language
interpreter. Now I did have a
community meeting that I had set up and someone
had requested about a week
before the meeting, hey
, would you be able to have
a sign language interpreter available
? I can't tell you how many
people I had to ask
just to figure out where
do I get that through the
county. So, that's
probably on me.
Issue. When I found the right
person they easily answered you
know contact this --
this company or this person and we will get
an interpreter here, it's not a problem
. But it was just something that
I hadn't thought of before. And
I hadn't -- so I apologize
in advance. But it was just not
something that I had come acr
oss yet. So after meeting Bonnie
, I knew that we
could both
both definitely learn from each other.
She even offered wonderful
training for our police officers because we
can always do better
. Especially
we see some scary
stuff on the news people walking with headphones
in and don't respond to a
police officers and bad things happen
or people that are hearing impaired
and they don't respond to an
officer and an
officer gets aggressive with them. I hope
that
stuff never does happen. I
feel that we -- we are
better trained here in
Fairfax than some of the
officers you see
on the news however we can always
do better. I want to make sure
I can talk and talk I think that's
why they made me outreach
I wanted to make sure that I gave plenty
of time in case anybody did
have any questions or to help me to
understand how we can do better
.
>> DEBBIE JONES: Great. Thank you so much
Reanna
. Letting us
know what your experience has been with the
community
is great because you go
so many different places
and you are bound to run into
more and more folks
hearing loss of course
is -- is something that can happen to
anybody at any time.
So, whether you are dealing with kids or
adults, you know,
from elementary school to
senior citizens, a
wide range of communication issues come
up maybe not even related to the language
barrier. >> Reanna:
Um-hmm so true.
>> DEBBIE JONES: All right. So let me start
out here real quick
. Taking a look at our
chat box over here.
Because I do see a couple of people are
having questions.
Okay. Because one question that
comes up this is probably a
procedure question,
say someone in the evening someone with a
hearing loss is pulled over by an officer
, and as the officer comes
up to the car,
he has that flashlight
out shining it in the person's face
the person who is hard of hearing cannot see
the officer's lips to understand
what they are evening asking. You know,
what can folks do
in that kind of situation, and
is there any way to adjust the protocol
for the officers
? >> Reanna: You know, I don't
know that there is a simple
solution to that.
So, unfortunately, the reason for
that bright spotlight that shines
in the back of the car,
and the reason for that flashlight
on the driver is because we are always concerned
that the person could have a
weapon. And we are concerned for our
own safety and that's the reason for that
. But, again, I do think
that motioning somehow you know
, you are hard of hearing
or something to that -- we get it
. It's just like wearing a
smile on your face. It's
the universal you
know, we are okay we are good
even if we don't speak the same
language a simple smile changes
everything. So, I
think to motion that you are
hard of hearing or try to tell them
you know,
now an officer walks up. We actually
here in Fairfax, because
of the cameras inside of the car, we have
a protocol that we actually
have a script that we read off of
. So, there will be time
for hi, I am officer Jacobson
with the
Fairfax County police the reason I pulled
you
over tonight is because you know you were
speeding
. So, you may have to wait a minute
, and you may miss all of that
.
However, to let them know you are
having trouble hearing. Even if it needs
to be overly exaggerated
it really might have to happen
.
>> Bonnie: I have a question.
>> DEBBIE JONES: Bonnie hold on one quick
thing I have.
I wanted to let Reanna know
the State of Virginia has actually
Virginia Department for deaf and hard of hearing
the
DMV and
-- I am forgetting the third one but
it is the upper
police departments association has actually
put out a placard that folks
can keep in their car
that -- bright
only placard
with: I am deaf or
hard of hearing and then they can turn it
over and it
has things to help with communication
. So just to let you know
that that's out there I will get one of those
to
you so you know about it.
>> Reanna: So that would be
a relief to me if I saw that
. Because at least that's
an open line of communication right
there.
Just to know similar we have had
people who have bumper
stickers or whether --
I have seen ones that say: I am
hard of hearing or I am autistic or
whatever it may be,
not everybody wants to put these things
all over their cars some sort
of card or something to show
. I mean even if you kept it
in the glove box with your registration or
whatever would work, that
would be an amazing fix
right there that I didn't even
realize existed.
>> DEBBIE JONES: All right Bonnie you had
a question? >>
Bonnie: Yes. I know
that when the
police pull you over,
let's say you are speeding
or there is something going on and they
pull you over they are supposed to put
your hands on the steering
wheel to show, I
guess that you don't have a weapon or whatever
the reason is. But for
those of us if you are a person
who is deaf which is a
very different very different
situation from being
hard of hearing I am hard of hearing. But
there are
people who are profoundly
deaf and they only communicate
with sign language. So, you have got
this whole continuum there.
But
when I was pulled over I wanted to
reach for my little
document that would tell the
officer that I had
a hearing loss, and I
didn't know what to do there. Because I
didn't want him to think -- I
mean me with a weapon I don't really
look likely. (LAUGHTER). >>
Bonnie: But still I was very nervous
about it so I didn't. So, when
he -- I put my
window down and he started to talk to me,
I said: I don't
understand what you are saying because I have
a
hearing loss you know what? He
just kept yapping his response to
me was like (indicating) and I
thought well that that's
not really right. Because you have got to
be able to
communicate well. So,
I think that
training would definitely help because he
was
very, very insensitive to it.
I couldn't understand half of what he said
. So it took him twice
as long to write me a ticket
as he would have another time.
But that reaching for what
I need to show an officer,
how do we handle that
?
>> Reanna: Honestly
the reason for us putting our hands on
that steering wheel or putting our hands
up against the wheel
is an officer saying the
hands are what hurt us.
Because that's what would have a weapon in
it
or that's what would --
you know that's what is going to hurt
us when we are talking to somebody. >>
Bonnie: Right. >> Reanna
: So I don't know an easy
solution for that. Other than if
you had that big
paper maybe attaching
it somehow to the advisor in
your car, I know that I can
see as you are reaching you
know, or if
you were deaf. Versus just
hard of hearing. Maybe to try
to sign on
your steering wheel
maybe -- may be a way
-- verses digging. We worry
about people putting their hands in
their pockets to pull out their wallet.
We worry because many people store a
gun in the center console of their
car or in their
glove box. So that's the reason for that
bright light when we are watching
your hand go into
the car.
So, maybe a solution might be
to attach it to your advisor somehow
is my best suggestion chances
are your gun is not going to fit
on top of your advisor
stuck to the advisor. But, again,
I am sure people are concerned with putting
big stick ares all over
their car. No one wants to
be a victim
because of you know whatever their
disability or whatever else
might be. >>
Bonnie: Right that's true. >> Reanna
: I understand putting it on the advisor
might be a good
suggestion never really thought of it before
Bonnie getting those wheels
burn turning there.
>> DEBBIE JONES: Okay, thank you Bonnie. And
that is a concern
particularly from a lot of deaf
community is they don't want
to put something on the car that
identifies that
they might be an easier
target for someone trying to take advantage
of them.
I believe we have someone who wanted to ask
a
question on camera
Brianna did you want to go ahead and turn
on your
camera and ask your question
? >> Hi
. First I just wanted to
say thank you Reanna for doing this and
thank you to all of you who helped
organize this you know
, very interested to learn
about what you guys are doing, what
you have done in the past,
and what you plan to do for the
future. I think someone also asked
this question on the chat
. But I was
curious I know Reanna
you said you were working with Bonnie on
this and maybe this is better question for
her to answer but I am curious to know,
what kind of
training or programs you guys have
for your officers
either stuff that you have done in the past
or
things that you are planning now
because I think it's important -- I
mean, I understand that
you are aware of
you know how it's hard
for a deaf person who is pulled
over by a cop
to feel anxious or worried
about moving their hands off the
steering wheel but
I don't feel
confident that a lot of other officers do.
And
I am wondering do you have some sort of
basic sign
program as well? Because you know, earlier
you were talking about
the story of going to the woman calling about
the
bird right? And you said
, as soon as the woman
had the motion to write,
you felt like it was so much easier to
communicate -- or you felt instantly
comfortable right? But I
think that you can't speak for the both
of you right? You probably felt very
comfortable. But that -- and of course you
know
that's not her way of
communication for that woman.
So, you know, sorry this is a little bit of
a long question but I am curious because I
think that there is a lot
that is just
simple explanation and training
in addition to the
signs that show the deaf and hard of hearing
community that their preferred way
of communication is important and you guys
need
to be doing more
to achieve that. Thank you
. >> Reanna: You are absolutely right
. But that's with anything. We
can always do better. And we can
always get more training
. Unfortunately,
I -- other than classes that
pop up here and there, for those
that choose to take
it, I don't know that there is
a cross the board
-- across the board training.
I would love it if Bonnie would pop
in because we were discussing try
-- trying to bring --
she does training with the fire department
is
my understanding but she has
had trouble getting into
into the police department. I want to try
to help her change that. You are
so right even though it made
me feel relief I am sure
the woman I spoke with
was frustrating as she should be
. We are to provide
service to people. Protect and
serve and I don't know that she was best served
with my little notebook and
our handwriting back and forth to each other
. So, is Bonnie available
to pop in maybe give a
quick overview of her training that she
does?
>> DEBBIE JONES: Actually we do hope
to have a kind of cross
training with the police
as well as other emergency services
in the future. So,
we have gt our fingers crossed on
that and we do talk about you know
, how do we -- how do we identify
that? What the person
's communication needs are. What kind
of devices
or work around you could
use for communicating with folks
. So, that is something that we are
going to be working on
there was one thing here real quick. You
mentioned someone in the chat had a suggestion
you mentioned about the officer has a
script that they have
to
follow. Maybe it would be nice if the
officers could have a copy of that when they
go up to the car for folks to read
if they have a hearing loss
. So, that way they are
not struggling so hard when
they are already stressed out there is a cop
in my window. (LAUGHTER)
. >> DEBBIE JONES: So that might be a nice
work around
if that's possible to work into their
protocols. >> Reanna:
That is a fabulous idea right
there. Even something that
is pocket size like a
business card that we
could carry right in our pocket I get it
you may go your entire
career and never need it but
if you even use it one time it was
worth carrying it around in your pocket
. >> DEBBIE JONES: It makes a big
difference. >> Reanna
: Stuff again we unfortunately -- I
mean not to be insensitive
but we just -- if no one
tells us it's an issue we
just keep going about business as usual.
Unfortunately, before we had
community outreach, there was no
person to try to have these conversations
in the middle to even find out how
we can do better. We
just keep going and
sometimes unfortunately until there is a
problem and then we work on doing
better. But it would be great if we
could do better before there is
a problem this time.
>> DEBBIE JONES: Right. Absolutely
.
All right someone was wondering what kind
of training the
officers have in terms
of working with folks with
disabilities, you know,
because not every disability is a visible
disability. For some folks you can
see the wheelchair or the crutches for
a lot of people
the disability such as deafness hearing loss
autism, a lot of these are not visible
. So, they were
wondering if officers
are -- get training on this kind of
interaction.
>> Reanna: So with some of it
we do. One of our
big hot topics that
have been for the last couple of years is
for people to be able to call in
and request a
CIT officer. That's crisis
intervention trained officer. And
what that means is that
the officer has specialized training in
things like autism
, or
Alzheimer's and dementia
or other special needs. However
, I took the original
class so which was
ten years ago at this point,
and then I wasn't eligible for the
new class because I had already taken
the previous class.
Our chief goal was to get every
single officer trained
. Now I don't know in the new
class if it even touches
on people who are deaf
or hard of hearing. You know, we
make special arrangements and have
to be special vehicles if we
make an arrest and a person is for example
in a wheelchair, they
can't ride in our police car
, we fold up
their wheelchair it doesn't work that way.
We
actually have a special transport
vehicle for them.
But most of the time it doesn't get used
enough thank goodness,
of course, but it doesn't get used
enough that it sits for extended
periods of time sometimes the battery
doesn't even start when we need
it finally for whatever reason
. So, as much
as we try to fix some of these problems
, we can always do
better. (LAUGHTER). >> DEBBIE JONES: Exactly
. Okay someone in the chat is asking
, suppose I am being pulled over
driving at night, being
pulled over but you are kind of in
the middle of nowhere you don't
feel safe pulling over there. Just a little
ways down the way is say a
gas station or more public area
. How do you -- how do you
signal to the officer that yes I see you
, but I don't feel safe
to park here can we get down to the
light? >> Reanna:
So, for me if P
someone would hit the four-
way flashers to give all
of the warnings that they
see me, they recognize I am behind them
, now if you just continue
to drive I don't know if you are just
slowly driving away or and
I am going to have to chase you the four-
way flashers could help immensely
. Again just so we are communicating
without even talking to etch other other
. >> DEBBIE JONES: Great, thank you.
Another person had a concern they went into
the
local police
-- police station last year and the
telephone
had a really bad
connection particularly for someone with a
hearing loss
. The person you know couldn't come
out from behind the glass to try to communicate
. What is a good way to
get around that?
That's a good question. (LAUGHTER)
. >> Reanna: That is a really good
question. Because we can't
hear through that glass at all
. That is ballistic
glass it is quite thick
. So, we can't hear through it and that's
why we use the telephone
. Now, honestly, I
think that that person could have
easily come around and come
out to speak to the person in the
lobby so that we could have handled
that better. Again
, I don't understand why
there is such
a lack of patience
and lack of kindness
truly sometimes that we can all
do better. That should
, I feel, that that should not have happened
.
But I don't know if there is a better way
to communicate. Unless you want to
text on the cell phone and stick it
up against that window
so we can read it
might be one solution. But again that's not
-- that's not perfect either.
>> DEBBIE JONES: Yeah. So even just this kind
of conversation brings up
things that -- oh, I never thought
about that kind of barrier to the
communication. It is definitely
as someone mentioned it definitely
would help if each station had
at least one or two people who were
interested in learning sign
language you know, kind of
exploring these communications to
improve -- improve communication with the
community.
Let me see here.
As they said -- each station
should have someone who is an expert
in this which would really be helpful
. >> Reanna: It would be helpful
. And previously
we would actually ask
on applications for new
hire police officers do you
speak any other language or you
know are you sign
language certified or anything like that.
Unfortunately, we just
have anybody who is.
So, which -- I find shocking.
It's my understanding there is
around 1500 of us
how does nobody know
sign language. Or at least
be willing to
share that with the people in the community
.
>> DEBBIE JONES: Another question: How many
CIT
officers are currently
available in
Fairfax police department do you know
? >> Reanna: The chief's
goal was to get 100
% compliance with CIT
however it's being a lng -- it's
either 40 hours or 80 hours. So
to put each
-- each officer through
that especially with COVID
where nobody can be together it takes a while
to
get people through that training
.
Now, mine because I took the original class
ten years ago, I am considered
not CIT certified even though
I did take a class. So I think
right now we have
maybe a third to a half of
all officers are trained
but that training comes out on
a regular basis. Because it's something that
we really do need
to recognize, you know,
everybody communicates differently and we
need
to recognize that.
>> DEBBIE JONES: Great. Someone suggested
a device that might be helpful
to the police station it's
called Ubi
Duo and that is --
it's basically two keyboards with a
little screen that communicate with each other
so the person who is deaf or
hard of hearing can type and then the officer
can
type back. And so that
might be something that's helpful for the
stations to keep in
their -- in their little communication
kit
.
All right, let me see here
.
Are there opportunities
for -- I mean obviously you go out
to community meetings but are
there also opportunities for the community
to go
to the police department meetings
and get to know their local officers
? >> Reanna: So
every one of our district stations has
called called a CAC
a citizens advisory committee
. I know they are talking about changing that
name because for some reason
, it's -- it
doesn't attract people
to the police department.
It is truly once a month
meetings where we have a guest speaker of
your voice -- your choice so you
can learn a little bit about
what some of our specialty units do
here and we just
communicate with each other. Questions back
and forth
. And it can even be as
simple as, hey, I read on the
Internet or I read on Facebook or
on next door that vehicles
are being broken into. What
happened with those vehicles.
Or something to that effect. It doesn't
need to be something huge
, we just communicate back and forthwith
each other. So, each station
has them. I wish I could give you
a specific day or specific
time but we all do
them at a different time so we can
share guest speakers sometimes
also. But your
district station has a
CAC and we are always trying to get
more numbers and more people to come in
. So,
part of the CAC is
monthly meetings so that we
can talk to you about what we do, and you
can
talk to us about what you need
. But honestly every other
month or so, we even do
something as simple as a soup
social. At the station. So
the police officers that are working that
day can come in, have a
bowl of soup and warm up in the middle of
the
winter not now when it's over a hundred degrees
, but in the winter for example
, a bowl of soup, we chat,
we
break bread and you start to
recognize sfs especially the ones who
might be patrolling right in your back yard
. >> DEBBIE JONES: Excellent
. Someone asked if there is a
registry or some way to let
officers know when
there is, say, a
deaf child in the house or someone with autism
in the house, and now you gotten
a 9-1-1 call you are
on the way to that location is there a way
to let the officers know that
information beforehand?
>> Reanna: There sure is
. Unfortunately our
dispatch system is an
antique at this stage of the game.
But we do have
access to it where I can put
information in or
any police officer for that fact can
put information into the system so when we
are dispatched
to a call, the screen tells you
, the address where you are going to what
the person needs,
and you know there is maps
and different things in case you need it for
the area
. But there is actually buttons across
the top that light up
.
One of them says
LOI for location of interest. Location of
interest tells us even as something as
simple as 8-year-old male
child in home is deaf
. I don't
want to put a whole lot of information in
there your name birthday and -- I keep it
very basic. But enough to know
. And that's
actually something I started more -- I
put together an autism fair
at our headquarters building
last year and it was very
successful but to reach out to
parents of autistic children
especially when they may not
be nonverbal they make
different noises they may not respond
the same way as
other children do whether
for police or something else. As I explain
to parents I don't need to know
everything but even something like if I
get sent to a
domestic violence call, because somebody
hears loud banging inside and the
noises of somebody who sounds like they are
screaming.
Well if you have an automatic thank yous particular
child in your home that might explain
what is happening. Sore if you were
to call 9-
1-1 but you can't talk
because you are having a medical emergency
I would like to know that you have a non
nonverbal 5-year-old in
the house because if you are not able
to tell me or you are having a
heart attack and you are not
even conscious when I get there, I would like
to know that I should probably take a glance
around just to make sure that there is
not a nonverbal
5 yeerld hiding in the class set
because they are scared from the commotion
that's happening
outside of their house
. So, yes, we do have it,
location of interest, we can put it in and
we can take it out. So,
it's available at everyone of the
district stations. >> DEBBIE JONES: So
, that's something that folks,
if they wanted to make sure that the police
had
that information, they could contact
their local district
station to provide that.
>> Reanna: Or the
fire department can put it in also we share
our dispatch system if I
put it in the firemen can see it if the
firemen put it in I can see
it so it's perfect
. >> DEBBIE JONES: Excellent. As
many folks know, but maybe some don't
,
Fairfax County now that's text 9
-1-1 available so
is that something that you are seeing used
more often contacting
9-1-1
? >> Re
: I don't actually have an answer to
that I don't work at dispatch
center they know better than I would. One
of the things we
promote, call if you can text if
you can't. And sometimes that means
because you are scared and you are hiding
and you are
trying to be quiet
. And so, you are
texting instead or it could
simply be that's your
best way to communicate with us and
that's totally okay too.
>> DEBBIE JONES: Excellent.
All right.
One of our folks in the chat actually
mentioned a gentleman named
Kevin Gant who is
Fairfax County police officer apparently he
does know
some sign. >> Reanna: So
I think he is with our
sheriff's department if I am not mistaken.
So, brown uniform but very
similar we are actually different departments.
I think they use him quite a bit
over at our jail and
courthouse but yes last I knew he was one
of the
people that I reached out to immediately
when I needed a sign language interpreter
for my community meeting
. He is the guy I called. (LAUGHTER)
. >> DEBBIE JONES: Okay. All right.
I am just checking through the chat and make
sure that I haven't missed anything
here
.
Okay one question that did come
up is --
the question to the officers,
how are they trained to respond if
somebody doesn't respond to verbal commands
? Say, you do
encounter someone who is deaf or
autistic who can't hear or
respond properly to those commands
obviously the officers have to make sure that
everybody stays safe,
but what are they trained to do
in those kinds of situations
?
>> Reanna: So that's part of that
CIT training. For
those of us who went to special
autism classes also which it's
something that I know I
volunteered to do for my station and
bring that training back to my
station to train all of the officers
. But
you know even just the key
to all of that patience
. Patience, patience. You
know, we just -- we need
to take a step back. Now, you
know, once upon a time
as a police department we were trained you
know,
we ask you to do something,
we tell you to do something,
and then we make you do it
. Well, that is
not okay. We -- that was
definitely old school thinking
. And it is not
okay. We learn that there is so many
different people and so many different
ways and disabilities that we
need to be sensitive to that
. So truly,
just patience maybe giving
some distance. I know one
of the things that a lot of
officers really kind
of were taken aback
by with the autism training
is when dealing with a child who
is
autistic it's almost backwards from everything
that
we normally do. Usually
you know if somebody was
going to walk away from us, we get closer
. Or if they are not listening we
talk louder.
That does not work with somebody who
is autistic. And
truly, I mean, I
feel like any of us who have kids
we definitely know the difference
between somebody who is
intentionally ignoring you like
they are 13 years old
versus they really just --
they can't hear you. Whether it's because
they have headphones in, which happens
often, you think about these tiny
little earbuds that
people use that
sometimes -- yeah
, they don't hear you. (LAUGHTER)
. >> Reanna: At all with the little headphones
in. So, whether it's because they are
deaf, hard of hearing, have
headphones in, we need to take
it all into consideration
. So, police work is
not easy. It's really not
. It is a new challenge
every single day. That's why a lot of
us love it. It's different every single
day and we learn
every single day.
So, patience really is what we need
to work with.
>> DEBBIE JONES: Absolutely.
All right. Are there any more questions
from folks? Or do
you have experiences that you might want to
share
?
>> DEBBIE JONES: If you have an experience
that you want
to share you want to sign your own
experience we can turn on the camera
.
>> Reanna: Or if when we are
finished if you think of something afterwards
please feel free to reach out to me. I don't
mind one bit. I enjoyed
this more than you know
. Just learning
back and forth. You guys have
my brain going about a hundred miles an
hour right now.
>> DEBBIE JONES: Okay let's see I think we
might have
one person.
Yes okay.
Let's see if we can get
Nancy's
camera up here hold on
. We will have
your information right Reanna if
folks think of something later
that they want to reach out to you? We will
have your contact information as well
? >> Reanna: I just put my E
-mail address in the chat just in case they
wanted
it ahead of time so I don't forget.
>> DEBBIE JONES: Excellent. Thank you. All
right.
We have Nancy coming up on the
screen here. And
she has something that she wants to say
. >> Hello
.
I don't know fpt interpreter can see me if
the lighting is okay or
the place is where the light is off but
I live in a small
town in Herndon
, and
I really you know it's
a small town I would say you
know how many stations did you say you had
? >> Reanna: Eight
.
>> Oh, only eight? (LAUGHTER)
. >> Oh, okay. Well
, it should be easy for us to
find one -- would it
be easy for us to find one in
our area? I mean
what about volunteers
of individuals that would come
to volunteer during coffee
breaks when they have nothing to do or sitting
around
or different coffee chat somebody
to volunteer to teach sign language
? >> Reanna: That might be a great
option.
>> Oh, well I am available
. (LAUGHTER). >> You know
?
Right now it's up for grabs
so, take it while you can. (LAUGHTER)
. >> Reanna: I appreciate the offer and
I think we do need to get started on this
. Now, please understand
because of the pandemic, that
I actually worked out
in patrol in a police car for the
last four months. There was no
outreach there was no officers on bicycles
, all of that was
out in patrol. So,
slow start getting back but
we are -- we could use your help
.
>>
It would be helpful if the police
would also
wear clear face l shields
when out on patrol when they are
talking to individuals who might
need to rely on lipreading
and NVRC has a lot of them
.
They have clear face
shields.
It's not just for lipreading but
for facial expressions as well
.
>> Reanna: So, of course that's ever changing
too. We had
face clear face shields that were donated
here to our station, and they had
to be checked by the safety officer
, I haven't seen them in months.
I don't even know where they went to
. They decided that our
best resource was for everybody
to have matching
dark blue masks.
So, I will definitely
suggest the clear face
shields or the mask where it's
clear it would be a great idea
.
>> I mean just have it on hand like
if they come
encounter someone who need that they
could put it on they could
have the clear face cheeld and
lipreading available. >> Reanna
: Very helpful thank you.
>> DEBBIE JONES: Thank you so much Nancy.
All right folks we are coming to the end
. We want to thank all of
you for joining us this
evening thank you Reanna again for your
time. If you all do think of
other questions
or concerns that
you have, get in touch
with NVRC, we can put you
in touch with Reanna. She
put her E-mail address in the chat box
and we can send it out later
as well. So, thank you
everybody. Bonnie did you have any
last minute things that you needed to add
? >> Bonnie: No I am good.
I think we pretty much covered
as much as we can in that one hour
. >> DEBBIE JONES: Great. >>
Bonnie: I thank Reanna
for coming brait program and thank
her also for speaking so very clearly
. That was a treat. (LAUGHTER)
. >> DEBBIE JONES: Well thank you. And as
we mentioned before we
did record it.
So if you forget things that were mentioned
, get in touch with us we can let you know
.
All right. Thank you all so much have a
good night, stay safe. Remember your
masks.
>> Reanna: Thank you for having me. >>
Bonnie: Thank you Reanna
. >> DEBBIE JONES: Bye-bye
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