On February 26, 2013, Tanya Ingram, who is deaf, got into a car accident on her way to Brooklyn. Police officers were called to the scene to facilitate, but Ingram noted that they only took statements from the other party.
It turned out to be the least of her worries.
Throughout the next 24 hours, she was forcibly removed from her vehicle, taken to various precincts, denied answers to her wordless pleas, and left in a cell. All the while, her only means of communication were her hands, which were shackled in handcuffs. The officers, despite all the signs, did not offer a way to understand her. There were no American Sign Language interpreters, no gestures, no pen and paper. All she could do was cry.
Two years ago, in light of successive discrimination cases the city had to settle over the police’s treatment of deaf individuals, the Deaf Justice Coalition launched a pilot program with the police department that served to improve police accessibility for the Deaf or Hard of Hearing community. The experimental study equipped certain precincts with “in-person, on-site ASL interpreters upon request” as well as tablets that facilitated video interpreting.
“We shouldn’t be treated like second-class citizens—least of all by the NYPD,” said Chris Tester, a member of the justice council, in the press release.
In 2018, it was estimated that there were more than 165,000 individuals with hearing difficulties across the five boroughs of New York City. They often face accessibility barriers in everyday life, a lower standard of living by virtue of their disability; and these issues are exacerbated when it comes to altercations with law enforcement.
The 2017 pilot program, monitored by the Deaf Justice Coalition, initially covered three precincts – 9th, 115th, and 121st – in Manhattan, Queens, and Staten Island. Five months after the rollout, the program expanded to four additional precincts: the 26th in Upper West Side; the 32nd in Harlem; and the 42nd and 44th in the Bronx, according to an NYPD statement to Patch.
Today, progress for DHH support is being monitored by the DJC and the New York Lawyers for the Public Interest, according to the firm. The metric for how well it’s working, however, is unclear.
“I wouldn’t say it’s a data point, but for measures of success, the most important part is outreach within the community,” said Maureen Belluscio, a staff attorney at the public interest organization. “To find out whether or not the people of this community that need help are getting it and feel like they’re helped.”
However, she would not give specific numbers or cases when asked.
In fact, with the addition of new department-wide regulations, the pilot program was scrapped altogether.
Nicolyn Plummer, the co-founder of the program and a social worker for Barrier Free Living, said the service is no longer in place today. The organization also did not receive any data from the police department. As far as she knows, it only ran for a couple of months back in 2017.
“We don’t know how many people in the deaf community have gone into the stations,” she said. “We don’t have that information.”
The organization was told that the commissioner they had previously worked with was no longer there, according to Plummer.
The NYPD could not be reached when asked about the efficacy of the pilot program.
“I believe at this point you would have to do the same thing as NYLPI and submit a public records request to get access to the data ” said Christina Curry, executive director of the Harlem Independent Living Center.
But even without the program, the police has gone further with its changes. Collaborative efforts between the department and advocacy groups have led to tangible policies aimed towards reducing accessibility barriers across the department. The Office of the Deputy Commissioner, Collaborative Policing, has standardized protocol so all officers have the ability to communicate with the deaf community.
ASL interpreters are now reachable through the phone, and special on-site ones are present to handle cases of domestic violence and other types of crime. To reduce response time, the deaf community advocacy group also partnered with LanguageLine Solutions so officers can connect deaf and hard of hearing individuals with live video interpreters directly using a smartphone application.
Last year, as part of DCCP’s collaborative policing initiative with multiple advocacy groups and the Mayor’s Office for People with Disabilities, the police also mailed out brand-new information cards tailored to 11,000 of the city’s license holders, designating them as deaf or hard of hearing drivers. These “visor cards” offer bilateral protection for both law enforcement and the DHH community, especially in stressful situations such as a traffic stop or motor accident.
The card, a blue-and-white form dotted with explanatory symbols and graphics, allows deaf drivers to fill in their communication method of choice. On the other side, the officer can circle specific icons that indicate the reasons for the stop and write down any required documents. In addition to having instructions for what to do when pulled over, the card also allows the driver to notify law enforcement agents to any pressing medical need.
Not everyone approves of these changes, however.
Susan Dooha, the director of the Center for Independent Living in New York, gauged her ASL interpreter staff members’ reactions. Many had concerns that the act of reaching for the card itself is alarming the police, especially when these people can’t verbally explain their intentions.
Retrieving something either from a wallet or a glove compartment can be interpreted as hostility. In situations of heightened tension such as a traffic stop, sudden movements can prove fatal if police officers feel threatened.
“By the time the drivers reach for the cards, they’ll have been killed,” said Plummer. “We tell them now, when they get pulled over, to freeze and stay in place.”
The NYPD’s guidelines may seem progressive on paper, but their execution suggests otherwise.
Christina Curry provided more examples of intrinsic barriers, from not having the appropriate regional ASL interpreter (sign language dialects vary as well) to the tablets and screens being ineffective for those with vision loss. She also suggested instances where police officers have disrespected or talked down to DHH people.
“I see a conflict of interest when a police officer wearing a uniform walks into an interrogation room and says he/she is the assigned interpreter,” Curry explained. She is also deaf.
In 2013, the updated NYPD Patrol Guide included a designated procedure for “Interaction With Hearing Impaired Persons”. Yet six years later, core problems persist in how deaf and hard of hearing cases are handled, according to the director. The NYPD may churn out innovative programs and make press statements about them every year, but the implicit bias and culture training among law enforcement is still largely missing, advocates say.
“Basic common decency; look at us when speaking, we do not need the officer to scream or speak slowly as if our IQ level was non existent.” Curry said in an email statement. “Do not speak to another individual when trying to find out information from us unless it is an interpreter and not a family member, friend.”
For Tanya Ingram, the police officer that arrested her took none of these precautions. She received a settlement from the city for $80,000 after her case, and such landmark cases have led to greater response by the police in the public eye. But advocacy groups are still calling for the same improvements today.
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