Maryland School for the Deaf (MSD) student Robert Harris, 17, has long been fascinated with police work, and this spring, he was able to educate the Frederick, Md., Police Department's as its first deaf student intern, as well as learn about policing himself.According to an AP story on two Baltimore TV stations' Web sites, Harris has taught police officers, firefighters and rescue workers about the deaf community and deaf culture.
He's now designing a visual communication tool to help first responders interact with hearing-impaired people and non-English speakers in Frederick, which is home to the Maryland School for the Deaf.
Police Chief Kim C. Dine said Harris's contributed much beneficial information that will help strengthen connections between police and the community of deaf and hard-of-hearing residents. About 2,000 deaf and hard-of-hearing people live in the city and surrounding county, including the 340 MSD students.
"We didn't know what a wonderful person we were getting," Dine said. "He's very patient with us, he's very smart and he's very excited, so he has energized us and our training staff."
Not usually a troublemaker, Harris said he liked playing the role of an uncooperative subject for a simulation exercise for a class of recruits, who had to try to calm and question him. When they finally caught him and handcuffed him, they learned a telling lesson about handcuffing someone who speaks sign language -- Harris could no longer communicate effectively.
"I've never been arrested, so it was neat to have the experience of being cuffed in the back and realizing, 'Wow, it really is hard to communicate,"' Harris said.
Harris teaches introductory American Sign Language classes and showed officers how to sign a few basic phrases such as "Good morning," "Good evening" and "ticket." He explained that that when talking to a deaf person using an interpreter, they should make eye contact with the deaf person, not the sign-language interpreter.
Because interpreters aren't usually around for an arrest or emergency, many police officers and EMTs carry commercially available laminated cards that show brightly colored drawings that allow a user to point to topics such as a physical description, injury or complaint. Harris plans to improve on the visual aid and interviewed local emergency services workers to get their recommendations to devise a different kind of pocket communicator.
Chief Dine says having an intern from the Maryland School for the Deaf was such as positive experience, he hopes it will continue.
"The challenge of police work is that the communities that need it most, in terms of communication, sometimes that is the biggest challenge," Dine said. "I frankly think that through this partnership, we are a better police department."
