In the firing line

Deaf people are becoming increasingly concerned that they could become victims of the increased use of armed police officers. Paul Carter reports

On 8 July this year, London’s Metro newspaper featured a dramatic photograph on its front page of a man lying face down on a train station platform in Bournemouth, being held at gunpoint by several armed police officers.

The man in the picture was a victim of mistaken identity, and had committed no crime.

Although the man was not disabled, the story did help to highlight concerns, among the deaf community in particular, about how the increased use of armed officers could impact on those with hearing impairments.

Lee Randall, who is hearing-impaired, saw the story, and wrote a letter to the Metro, expressing concern about how armed officers would react to a similar situation involving a deaf person.

“I was worried about what would happen if armed police wanted to get a deaf person to stop,” said Randall.

“I’m originally from Venezuela, where the police are heavily armed 24 hours-a-day. With more armed police on the streets here, especially in London, it really worried me that one day a deaf person could get caught up in the middle of something.”

They are not baseless fears, either. In a notorious incident, British soldiers shot and killed an allegedly unarmed deaf man following a civil rights meeting in Northern Ireland, in 1971. More recently, there have been similar cases in both Israel and in Iraq, where a taxi-driver was killed after failing to respond to commands to stop.

Shortly after Randall’s letter was published, the Metropolitan Police invited him to discuss his concerns.

At the meeting, attended by Disability Now, we were shown part of a presentation given to armed officers during their initial firearms training.

Disabled people are defined by the police as belonging to “special population groups”, or SPGs.

The police definition of a SPG is “a group of people who do not behave in an expected, rational manner as a result of some form of mental impairment (either permanent or temporary)… Similar issues may be encountered when there are communication difficulties, such as when the subject is deaf or has a different first language.”

In 2003, the Police Complaints Authority undertook a review of police shootings, which identified that SPGs were at high risk when encountering armed police.

Anne Novis, co-chair of the Metropolitan Police Service disability advisory group and the British Transport Police national advisory group, says the police are trying to learn more about how to deal with potential incidents involving disabled people.

“I know for certain that the Metropolitan Police Service are addressing this issue in their training for armed police,” she says.

She has discussed these concerns with a Met community advisory group on armed policing and has reviewed policies on the impact of armed policing on disability equality.

One of the biggest issues raised during our meeting was over communication with profoundly deaf people, and the fears that a deaf person could be mistakenly shot.

Puvana Sakthivel, who is deaf, said: “I’m worried that if ever an armed policeman was trying to tell me to do something, that I wouldn’t know anything about it and would just keep walking.”

Inspector Nick Aldworth, from the Met’s firearms policy unit, was keen to allay some of the fears, and said that all officers are trained to deal with people who don’t react as expected. “All firearms officers are highly trained, and are capable of recognising the circumstances when a different approach may be required,” he said.

Chief Superintendent Bill Tillbrook, head of the specialist firearms command, known as CO19, said these issues showed the need for his unit and officers to reconnect with the public.

“We need to get out there to different communities and explain our work, and what we do,” he said.

There did seem a willingness from officers at all levels to listen to the concerns raised by those at our meeting, and learn from them.

As a result, the discussions were open and honest, and at times even critical of the police, such as instances of British Sign Language-users (BSL) being handcuffed.

The only subject they could not discuss was the shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes at Stockwell underground station in London, because of an ongoing inquest.

C019 responds to an average of 12,000 calls a year, only 2,000 of which actually require “deployment” from armed officers – where they leave the vehicle to take action – while they undertake an average of 50 pre-planned operations a month. But officers only fire their weapons on average twice a year.

“The last thing any firearms officer wants to do is fire their weapon, because of the obvious implications that has,” said Inspector Aldworth.

“We simply would not shoot at someone just because they failed to react to commands to stop, as that would instantly make officers aware that something may not be right,” he said. All firearms officers are trained to deliver immediate first aid after firing live rounds.

Since our meeting, there has been a willingness from officers to learn one or two basic BSL words to assist them in communicating with deaf people in an incident, although they admitted it would be difficult, as armed officers need two hands for weapons handling.

Lee said the day had gone some way to allaying his fears. “I thought what they had to say was very interesting, especially for a hearing-impaired man like me. The attitudes of all the officers were very open-minded, especially to our questions. Overall, it was really reassuring.”

Picture: © MPA 2008 (DPA)