This is the CART transcription of the Town Hall forum held between the Rochester Police Department and the Deaf community of the Greater Rochester Area. The forum was held on May 21, 2008, from 7:00 pm – 9:00 pm at the Rochester School for the Deaf.

Participants in the forum included RPD Chief David Moore and several senior officers from his staff. RPD participants also included newer officers and the officers that will be serving as the liaisons with the Deaf community.

Dean DeRusso, Deaf Systems Advocate at the Regional Center for Independent Living, served as facilitator for the forum. Dean and several other deaf individuals had a series of meetings with the liaisons from RPD to arrange the forum.

While the following transcription is imperfect and difficult to follow at times, we hope that it will give you a good idea of the incredibly valuable discussion that was begun at the forum. It is our hope that this dialogue and the learning process will continue with RPD. Chief Moore expressed his desire to me to have another forum in the fall.

>> Good evening, everyone, and welcome. This is for the Rochester Police
>> Department. And I want to thank the center for disability rights. We have
>> spent many hours and a lot of time creating this meeting. RCIL put our
>> police committee together. I’m Karen. And the other members of the
>> committee are Berchard Fisher, Dianne Amero, Dean DeRusso, Renee
>> Nicholls, and Kris Runyon. We have Come Together this evening with the
>> Rochester deaf community and the Rochester Police Department. And I would
>> like to thank the Police Department for being here this evening. And I
>> would ask you to introduce yourselves, please.

>> Good evening, everyone.

(Applause American.

>> I’m your Police Chief, David Moore. And on behalf of the entire Rochester
>> Police Department I would like to thank all of you for allowing us to
>> participate in such an important forum as we have this evening. I feel
>> that this forum is long over-due. And I want to personally thank you, all
>> of you, for allowing us to communicate with you tonight on any specific
>> issues that you may have. And I have no doubt when we leave this
>> auditorium this evening, those of us in uniform will have a much better
>> understanding of some of your unique concerns and hopefully some of the
>> things that we’re doing well, we’d like to hear those, also. And it’s my
>> pleasure to I said dues members of my staff.

And I would like to start with the number two person in charge of the
department, my Executive Department tee chief, George Marcus.

(Applause).

>> Good evening. It’s my pleasure to be here. I look forward to our dialogue
>> tonight. It’s also my pleasure to introduce the other members of the
>> staff here and explain their roles in tonight’s forum and their
>> continued — I guess their continued role in ongoing communications.

So next to me, seated next to me is Lieutenant Don Lucas.

(Applause).

>> He’s the aid to the chief. And if there’s a problem or complaint that
>> comes into the office, he’ll be the person that responds to you directly
>> in a timely fashion.

Next to him I have Sergeant Henry Rivera.

(Applause).

>> Henry is a road patrol supervisor in this area. And he brings that
>> perspective for any questions you might have.

Next to him I have officer KOCH to bring the officers’ perspective you might
have tonight. Next to him is officer Lamar cousins, he is with our training
unit and will be able to speak to the training that’s provided to both the
new hires and ongoing personnel in-service training.

And three individuals are also with the Police Department that many of you
may be aware of. There’s also Dave Friedlander.

(Applause).

Officer Renee Nicholls. And officer Kris Runyon.

(Applause).

>> They are liaisons to the deaf community. So thank you, and we look
>> forward to your conversation.

(Pause).

>> Thank you. We have a lot of people who are here. Without being here
>> tonight this event would not be possible. So we’d also like to introduce
>> Dean DeRusso who will talk about the purpose of the event.

(Applause).

>> Good evening. I’m excited for all of us here in this room. And I’m
>> excited for our panel members. Tonight we’re here to hear from our
>> community as well as to hear from the officers in this room at the same
>> time. The purpose of tonight’s meeting is for us to Come Together because
>> of problems in the past. And we need to bring this to the forefront.
>> (Inaudible).

For tonight what we’re hoping for this evening is that you can explain your
operation, your thoughts. I’d like to thank everybody for being here. We
would like to start with a good evening.

Now, if I could have you come to the floor.

>> Thank you, Dean. It is certainly a pleasure to be here again with you
>> this evening. I know that we have worked very diligently over the last
>> several months with specific issues that have taken place. With
>> individuals from the deaf community. And I want to thank you for not only
>> your commitment, but also your understanding of patience. I think the one
>> thing that I would say is that sometimes it’s a challenge when we talk
>> about a breakdown in communications. I know that one of the — I always
>> say probably the best tools that any police officer can have is the
>> opportunity to communicate with citizens.

We always look, even when the community is in the hiring process, for
individuals who have a very nice connection, that can communicate, express
themselves and be patient. I think they are very good qualities for any
police officer.

Unfortunately in our business many times though we deal with individuals in
an emotional time. When the state of emotions are very high. And it’s very
important to the police that we have a good sense of self-control and try
and deal with the situation at hand.

And as I said this evening, we’re not going to hear a lot of complaints
about the fact that we did something wrong, or we didn’t follow through on a
victimization situation, but it’s probably something as simple or a very
brief encounter. And once again, your situation is important to us to make
sure that we handle those situations well. I’ve invested a lot of training
in our offices. We have someone who is here this evening that all of you
have met. They do a fantastic job not only with the deaf community but the
community. I can tell you Customer Services are very important to the
police, very important to the administration. When we leave a conduct
whether it’s writing a ticket on a traffic stop or writing a report for a
victimization of a crime we want you to feel that we did the very best that
you deserve. And I know sometimes we may fall short. And that’s what’s
important this evening. That we walk away from here, we have very good
policies and procedures on how we should deal with an individual that has
a — whether he is deaf or having a hearing impairment. We have very good
policies and procedures when to contact interpreters, when to call
supervisor for assistance. All those things look good in our book in what we
call our general orders. But we know we can do more and we can be better.
That’s why we’re here this evening. And I hope all of you have an
opportunity to reach out. We have experts here that I depend on every single
day to make us look good, make sure that we’re doing the job that you expect
of us.

So once again, Dean and your staff, thank you for having us. And we’re
prepared to address any issues that you may have. Thank you.

(Pause).

>> Well, this evening I’d like to explain our role in the committee. We have
>> a system. When a person asks for advocacy it means that something in the
>> system they need an advocate to provide responsibilities as an advocate
>> in that situation. To help us negotiate. I’m sorry. As I look at my
>> notes. Thirdly, as an advocate, it’s to provide support for both sides.
>> For our community. With their experience as well as somebody who
>> understands the system. So I have to look into situations, and I realize
>> that some of the incidents are very sensitive and hit home. At the same
>> time there are sensitive incidents on the other side as well. When we
>> talk about this several of you share similar experiences. At the same
>> time these officers have shared experiences with us as well. So it really
>> does go both ways. So if we could we’re hoping that we can show
>> throughout this evening what we at the same time can talk more about the
>> systems that you have. With the opening remarks if we could have the
>> speakers line up on the stair side we’ll have an individual signing from
>> that side of the room. On this side of the room we’ll have an
>> interpreter. So who’s ready? Someone from the other side?

(Pause).

>> I’m sorry. You want to speak about something this evening?

>> You want to get up first?

>> Sure.

>> Let’s talk about our training. Yes.

>> Absolutely. Please do.

>> Good evening. I’m officer Lamar cousins, I represent the department. One
>> of my jobs is for me to fulfill training in Rochester. What we do is
>> first of all we have a crew training. We have constant recruit hiring and
>> we have a class of 25 coming down now and probably 50 or 60 coming out in
>> August.

All the recruits receive training in many areas, hundreds of hours. We are
probably double or triple the size that New York State requires.

And one of the training sessions we do take part in is we have a 4-hour
blast in deaf awareness. And each block we talk about besides that is
vehicle stops, you know, stop and frisk. You know, MVA’s. So every block
deals with community members. On top of that we have an inservice session
for everyone who’s been hired in continuing education is called inservice
training. And in 2005 we had departmental training that went to everyone in
the entire City of Rochester Police Department. And we continue that
training as needed.

(Applause).

>> Officer, there is a question for you.

Now, do you look for deaf people to volunteer for that program and provide
training?

>> Yes, we reach out to personnel from RIT in the past. And her name escapes
>> me, I’m sorry.

>> Amy STERNELLA, from RIT comes in and teaches the recruit program. And
>> also we reach out to members of the community to teach all sorts of
>> programs throughout the Academy.

(Pause).

>> Thank you. Thank you.

>> Hello. My name is Frances. And (inaudible). I wouldn’t say that it is
>> going to be (inaudible) when I see the men and women within your
>> community cause that’s great. I have an interpreter. And I think that
>> there’s a lot of — there is the Academy out there and you can still see
>> that there are a lot of people who have problems who are like me who can
>> think that you are dumb, under-educated that when you hire an officer,
>> and I looked at the different channels this evening. I want somebody to
>> decide that the people in power are people who are different. You have
>> experience with discrimination. So when you are a person (inaudible). You
>> might be experiencing a situation in another way. As a deaf person I’m
>> excited to see the diversity on the panel this evening. And I’d like to
>> see a deaf officer.

>> Thank you very much for your comments. And one thing that’s very clear.
>> In a perfect world each and every one of us would have an opportunity –
>> we have 741 officers I believe this week. I think we’re real close to
>> that. And each one of them has the capability of signing, I think that
>> would be great. I stood here this evening and talked about the importance
>> of communication. I certainly need to go back and learn how to
>> communicate and connect with every single member of this community. This
>> is a very diverse community, a very large population. When we look at our
>> deaf community, and so it is important for us, and that is why our
>> training staff, we continually look for ways to improve on how we
>> communicate; particularly with the young officers who are coming on, on
>> the department, and even us older folks. We need to really go back and do
>> some training as well.

We have opportunities for inservice training. So there is some things that
we’re constantly doing on a regular basis.

Once again in a perfect world, of course. With all of the issues of
communication barriers right in this community, and we have many, this is a
very diverse community. I call it sometimes a mosaic, because we have so
many needs and backgrounds in the city. Where you can literally drive around
the community for 30 minutes and you feel like you’re going around the
world. But nonetheless, the issue here this evening is communicating with
you. And that’s something we’re committed to doing.

(Pause).

>> My name is David Daly. From time to time I have seen this program,
>> Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. And I see the same city
>> with the same officer who goes in, makes an arrest. Realizes he can’t
>> (inaudible) they talk for five minutes and then another individual shows
>> up who can speak that person’s language. But how nice that is to have
>> someone who speaks the same language as the guys you are reaching out to.
>> You are dealing with people here who may call for (inaudible).

(Applause).

>> You need to become experts in sign language. You need somebody there
>> within five minutes who can speak our language. I think that is great.
>> And I think you need to look at providing that skill.

(Applause).

>> Does anybody want to respond to that?

>> And once again, you just validated my point why it’s important that we
>> should take the extra step to have each and every one of us — that
>> should be our goal to be able to sign and have an opportunity to
>> communicate. Fortunately we do have on our staff, we’re required to have
>> on our staff although that may be on a rotating basis, we do have
>> interpreters and as I mention in there my remarks, we do have
>> interpreters. It would be ideal if every officer had someone in that car
>> with them that had the capability of speaking various languages and
>> communicating, particularly this evening when we discuss the deaf
>> community. That would be ideal. That’s what we’re shooting for. Maybe
>> something that idealistic, that’s what we should shoot for.

(Applause).

(Pause).

>> My question is when you have the interpreters, you have five
>> interpreters, I’ve heard many complainants say that they are interpreters
>> and they find that those police officers (inaudible) but maybe one or two
>> years. They’re not certified. Yes. They are with deaf people but they are
>> an interpreter for the Police Department. And that’s not true. You can’t
>> give out the Certification quality and call an interpreter with less than
>> two years experience. So please educate your officers that they may know
>> sign language but it’s very basic. But make sure you get certified
>> interpreters or someone who’s qualified as a good interpreter from the
>> deaf community.

(Pause).

>> Thank you for that comment. Sir, and we are aware of qualified
>> interpreters, certified interpreters. And no one currently in the
>> Rochester Police Department is a certified interpreter, but we don’t
>> pretend to be. We do have a contract, city contract, effective for
>> interpreters here to provide through that contract that the Police
>> Departments have it. And it’s separate from what the rest of the City of
>> Rochester has. The Police Department by nature of our work has the need
>> to have 24-hour support in exigent circumstances. It’s not like we have a
>> planned meeting all the time. Certainly, this we were able to give
>> notice, but if it’s 2 o’clock in the morning, and we have the need for
>> certified interpreter, within one hour, by contrast, they must arrive.

Now, with that said, there are many times that we can use either another
effective means of communication per the Americans with Disabilities Act.
I’m sure you’re familiar with that. Or we can use someone like myself or
other officers who are capable of some signing. And certainly we have other
things, we have interpret type machines which is the old-fashioned pen and
paper. There are ways that we can effectively communicate. But we don’t –
get back to the point we don’t pretend to be certified interpreters and part
of that is because we would tend possibly to be biased. And regardless of
what I stand here and say to you I’m not biased. I am a policeman, and I
wouldn’t want you to believe that maybe I was painting an investigation one
way or the other. So we remove ourselves from that problem by using only
unbiased certified interpreters when the need arises. Does that answer your
question?

>> Yes.

(Applause).

>> High name is Robert. I’m am a victim with the August 15th assault that
>> happened between 10th and Clinton. One of the officers stated they were
>> going to get an American Sign Language interpreter. The person that
>> arrived on that evening was not an interpreter. In fact, they were very
>> not experienced in sign language. And I was trying to communicate. And
>> that’s (inaudible).

I would like you to speak on the zero tolerance this evening. If you have An
Encounter with a person that may be not going so well. And you have to give
them a ticket? Because I feel on the 15th this incident I felt that it could
have been handled in a better manner. If you could just elaborate for me on
that.

>> Thank you very much. First of all, I’d like to state that that incident
>> is an open investigation, and per the law I cannot specifically talk
>> about that case. But I’d be more than happy to talk about zero tolerance.
>> I think that’s a very important initiative that we’ve been doing since
>> October 5th. And those of you who are aware of our crime prevention
>> initiative, it’s really adopted that — certainly it was given that name.
>> But really zero tolerance is not about a certain person in an area. It’s
>> just about a normal (inaudible). If we see even the most minor violation,
>> the officers have been told to be very aggressive and stop that violation
>> via a violation where someone is walking, and you stop them and confront
>> them or if you’re riding in a vehicle, they intend to stop every single
>> violation and let the individual know about the violation.

And what we’re trying to do is develop omni presence, so the lights around
you are flashing, you as citizens can see that the police are there.

We’re trying to change the culture of this community. Hopefully we will
change the culture of what we believe. Hopefully that is to be certainly.
You’ve heard me say many times, we are trained as good old-fashioned
policemen, of course, within the Constitution. Our Constitution is obviously
very important to every member of our department and that is not something
we want to violate. However there are times that there may be a situation on
a traffic stop, I would encourage anyone when you have a situation, don’t
wait until the next day. You call. Get in touch with a supervisor. As
quickly as you can. And articulate the circumstances and your frustration or
your complaints. The sooner we know about that situation, the better off we
are.

We owe it to you as citizens. And we certainly owe it to the officers to
look at that situation as quickly as we can.

And I can tell you, the overwhelming amount of complaints we get at the end
of the day is simply a misunderstanding. And I think I do want to mention
zero tolerance, when we started in October there are many in the community
that anticipated that our complaints would go up; when, in fact, they’re
fairly normal. They’re where they were even a year ago. So our officers are
using very good judgment.

And, yes, we do have complaints, and we deal with those, and I said this
before, we are not perfect. We hire from the human race. That means,
certainly, we are not perfect, and we make some mistakes, but I think what
is important is that we identify our mistakes, we hold the employee
accountable, and we move on.

We owe it to the community to do our jobs as professionally as we can,
keeping in mind that we’re here to make sure that you are safe.

But once again, zero tolerance not just about the violence, it’s about every
single violation, being noise, a taillight out, anything that is a quality
of life issue.

We want this to be the safest city in America and we’re on the way. Our
crime rate is down in the last five years. You should be very proud of that.
It’s not just us, it’s the Mayor, city council, it’s members of this
community who are supporting it. But zero tolerance cannot work with the
police alone. We need your help. And in order to get your help, we need you
to trust. And that’s one of the reasons we’re here this evening, to make
sure that we can reach our relationship and make it better. Thank you.

(Applause).

>> My name is Barbara I would like to express to you what I think of your
>> department. I think that you do a terrible job. I’m that it’s been my
>> experience that you have poor (inaudible). I had a very tragic incident
>> happen to me. Every time I have an incident with this officer I ask for
>> his number and he says, hey, how much (inaudible) can you guys get? And
>> (inaudible) something which I use and I discuss that. And it’s great. But
>> that’s the first question that you ask me. You know, when you find out
>> that you’re working with a deaf individual, you should try to get an
>> interpreter in a moment. And you are not. And my husband and I have
>> regularly seen this attitude (inaudible) so I hope that you will improve
>> your ability for our community, please. And as well this evening, that’s
>> the first thing I wanted to say.

Secondly, I notice that police officers.

(Pause).

>> Sorry, I need to ask for a clarification. I didn’t hear the whole story.

So I notice that as an officer you might believe someone’s story. Like, for
example, a woman might call an officer and explain to him and if there’s a
guy and a woman in the room you might actually take the woman’s side in a
moment and you might back off. I think that you need to really show more
neutrality, women call officers but I think you put (inaudible) the women
also have a lot of problems. And there might be a lot of one sided support
so I’d like to see from you taking care of all of us. Thank you for inviting
me here.

(Applause).

>> Can we hold on for just one moment, please?

I’d like to say that after we do this we’re going to take a break. There are
drinks out in the hallway. And just a couple things to think about is I’m
concerned that there are some of you in the room who aren’t very comfortable
in providing your stories. Feeling comfortable and safe. So we would provide
an opportunity for you to write down your comments so feel free to approach
me during our break and I’ll give you one of these pieces of paper where you
can write down your story. Give that to me, and I can represent your
thoughts and your views. If that’s another way of making you feel
comfortable. So after this response we’ll take a brief break. This evening’s
program is not over. It will be a short break, and then we will all come
back. No. Not yet. We’re not ready to break at this moment. After this
response, then we’ll take a brief intermission. We’ll take a 5-minute break.

So we will take a five-minute break after this response.

>> Chief Moore: Yes. I just want to comment on the last — respond to the
>> questions we had. First of all, I’m very sorry that you feel that in your
>> heart that we failed you. But we — it’s very clear, so please, we do
>> have a set of guidelines that we use when we should call out an
>> interpreter. There are guidelines that we look at, we use them every
>> single day. And that’s something we have to go by. Certainly we have
>> flexibility, also. But I tell you, you may have different officers
>> respond in the same situation and handle things a little bit differently
>> each time.

Once again, you’re dealing with the human element. And certainly, when you
have an officer come on scene, the first thing we want to do is be sure that
we make sure that everyone is safe in that environment, including the
officers. But we have a tremendous amount of flexibility and discretion.
That is something that is utilized. So once again, we do have guidelines on
what we should do, when we should respond, how we should respond, and who
should come to the scene, including when an interpreter should be called
out. But we’ve honestly failed you and I certainly look forward to speaking
with you off-line, getting information to follow through with the
particulars of your issues.

(Applause).

>> We will Take five minutes intermission.

(5-minute intermission now).

(Pause).

>> Good evening. I would like to get everybody’s attention this evening.
>> Hello. Hello. I want to get everybody started again. Hello.

We’re going to get started again.

As the moderator this evening I would like to say if there is a specific
story or comment that you would like to make tonight, if we have
participating members if you give a statement so the answers that you might
get back and you need something specific to be addressed then you need to
ask it specifically. You guys are ready. And I see that you’re agreeing with
that.

So we’ll go ahead to our next speaker.

>> Good evening. My name is Jerry Brady. And my partner and I have been
>> working on the time here to improve communications between EMT, emergency
>> medical technicians and the deaf community. And what we decided to do was
>> to come up with a flash card concept that actually helps the EMT’s to use
>> sign language to communicate with deaf patients. They don’t have to know
>> much sign language but all the questions they ask are questions that
>> are — questions they need answers in order to give medical assistance.

Quickly, all the answers will be on the note for the patient, the deaf
patient. And we have these on cards and as we try to gather information to
create these cards we found that there was a problem in the deaf community
communicating with the police officers. So we became interested in that as
well.

One of the things that was recommended even here tonight, well, outside
while we took a break, was that the police officers, not the police
officers, but the — when deaf people, drivers get driver’s license at that
time they’re also given or issued a card that says that they are deaf. And
so that if a police officer stops them, when they see the driver’s license,
they also see the card, so they know they have a deaf driver, a deaf person.

The real issue that I see coming from this is that there needs to be a
better awareness of what police officers have to do.

The one thing that I’ve noticed that people do even in the hearing community
is they don’t owe bay a direct order of a police officer. That can lead to a
situation in my opinion. Well, deaf people can’t hear. So the impression is
that they may not be — they may be disobedient. And that tends to escalate
a feeling. So there must be some sort of training for them to get
face-to-face with people that you are about to arrest or you apprehend or
you stop. And you do this and you are aware of the situation. I don’t
believe an interpreter in every car is the answer. It’s too expensive, for
one thing.

Plus if there was some sort of training that police officers could have that
could be geared and directed towards the possibility of dealing with deaf
people, that could help a great deal.

So it needs to be a 2-sided thing. Something for the deaf people, such as
those cards that are issued with the driver’s license, and training that can
take place with police officers as they become more aware of what they need
to do. If you have a deaf person in a traffic stop and they’re not being
obedient. If you handcuff them behind their become you just lost all
communication. They can’t do anything. Which means they end up being in
trouble. Eye contact. If I turn my face like this when I’m talking to you,
you can’t hear what I’m saying. You know I’m talking. But the deaf person
needs to see you — your face, and you need to see their face. If you have
eye to eye contact communication takes place better. That’s the kind of
thing I’m talking about, that the police officers need to have specific
training to deal with deaf people.

And I don’t know whether I could make a suggestion here. I’m not aware of
any particular problems I know about but if something were to happen, if
they started to make that happen I think that would improve the relationship
between the deaf community and the police officers. But I think that the
public in general need to be retrained on listening to — and obeying a
direct order from a police officer. So that is a serious problem. We have to
deal with problems. But the people are not — they have to stay where
they’re always at. They can’t do that.

Okay. That’s all I have to say.

(Applause).

>> I have a couple comments in regards to that. We Dove conduct training
>> that speaks to the issues that the gentleman was indicating about, the
>> need for a deaf person to have — communicate. And as far as recruiting
>> and there’s training that’s provided. And although Rochester has a higher
>> per capita of deaf populations, the contact between the police officer
>> and an individual that is deaf is limited. So I think we need to work
>> harder to address that issue.

Earlier this evening, the gentleman was talking about police officers that
had taken some sign language courses at a very basic level. And it is also a
criticism, and I look at that as actually a step forward for us. Because
when I came on in 1985, there were zero people who spoke sign language. And
while we have a small number of people that are at various levels of the
ability to sign it’s a step forward. We really need to go there T.

Specifically for zero tolerance in car stops, those are stressful situations
for the police officer and for a deaf or a hearing individual. You know,
you’re wondering why you’re getting stopped. We’re worried about our safety.
And a lot of times those situations can quickly disintegrate into a problem.
So I think it’s very important for the deaf community to understand we’re
police officers, what we do, what the expectation is of the power, the way
the driver will act in a car stop. We lay it out and as we expect that, you
have the right to expect that the police officer is going to identify
quickly that you are hard-of-hearing or a deaf person, and then he has
certain requirements for communication. It’s not realistic to think that in
all instances we’re going to get an interpreter out there for that
situation. So we’re trying to do the best we can, and in a real world, work
through communication, be it through writing, be it through the assistance
of someone, maybe a hearing individual who signs also in the vehicle. We are
trying to move in the direction to have more people that do sign. The other
thing that struck me about interpreters and certified interpreters, and the
need to provide certain types of sign interpreters, the realization is that
we don’t provide certified interprets for Spanish speakers or German or
Polish or any of those types of things. And when you get down to it, sign
language is another language. It’s an important language, one that we need
to come up to speed to a level of daily use, the ability to provide the same
amount of sign language speakers that we do Spanish speakers. Spanish
speakers are kind of naturally occurring phenomenon on the department. Not a
requirement but many people speak Spanish, it’s done as a cultural thing.
And the job requirements are set to — unless — many times unless an
individual on the department has someone in their family or a relative that
are hard-of-hearing or deaf, they don’t have desire to go to school and
teach themselves. It’s not something that naturally occurs. We have to
realize and work on developing. It’s not an excuse. It’s a fact of life. And
we need to do better at providing the services that this community needs.

(Applause).

>> I have a challenge for you because I’m not sure I have the right words.
>> So the interpreter for deaf people is another. When you talk about
>> Americans with disabilities act and the legislature, we know it is
>> required for an individual to have an effective means of communication so
>> if you could keep that in mind, then (inaudible). And so we need
>> effective communication somehow that needs to be provided. Thank you.

>> Hello, my name is Robert TAUNY. I moved here just two years ago from
>> Virginia. When I was in Virginia I was given a card. I was given this
>> card. It was given to me by Virginia. Let me show it to the people in the
>> room. So this card was given to me. I also had a piece of paper, this
>> white piece of paper. And it helped me to communicate my information. I
>> thought that was a good thing. So if I can communicate my information to
>> you in an easier way to identify me so the card, I’m going to show you,
>> and hopefully we can use it in our community.

(Applause).

>> (Inaudible).

(Pause).

>> Did we hope that something positive will come out of this instead of
>> explaining about specific incidents. We want to hear them all, but it
>> will be a resolution of something that’s already happened if there’s a
>> specific idea that we can maybe build on and distribute amongst the
>> community and train our police officers to realize it might be a real
>> tool. So we’ll just try to hook up and do that.

>> Thank you. Our next speaker.

>> I’d like to thank you for being here and taking the time. I know that you
>> are (inaudible) who need.

>> So thank you for taking the time to be with us tonight. (Inaudible)
>> regularly. If I’m at home (inaudible). I know that you are here to
>> protect me, that you’re here to protect the community. At the same time I
>> also feel a little more vulnerable as an individual who lives in the
>> neighborhood. So if something were to happen if I were to call a police
>> officer in my neighborhood what if the officer would (inaudible) or not
>> able to understand me. I’m (inaudible).

So anything about this meeting if you can take back with you, and apply
these instances to — it’s not really us as a people. Just look at it at
people partnering with you, and that you can work with me and I will work
hard to work with you. It is something that you do while you’re out there.
And I don’t think this will really happen — well, no, maybe I do. You said
that you had 700 something officers in the City of Rochester. What is the
percentage of (inaudible)? Do you have a low number? And if it is a low
number, is that something you can provide some training in? Just twice a
year, a refresh, or a 2-hour, 3-hour basic sign language? Maybe something in
the forefront or something that you have here. Because we are members of the
community. To even basic sign language would be helpful. So driver’s
license, basic (inaudible) interpreter and will get somebody there
(inaudible).

Just so we have a basically yeas son as opposed to being in the community
alone. And thank you for the time to hear me.

(Applause).

>> Thank you. You bring up a good point. And some of the things that we
>> teach the recruits and the inservice officers are from training, we
>> purposefully named it: Deaf awareness. Because it is hard to decide. Some
>> people have little or no exposure or experience with deaf or
>> hard-of-hearing individuals. So we know from experience some of your
>> specific desires, needs, requests, things like that.

So we do try and talk about things. We always face the person we’re speaking
to. Be sure there’s good lighting. But we will never find a whole department
of signers. It just is not feasible, at least not here this far.

We probably have quite more specifically, we probable value a dozen or so
officers who know sign language at various skill levels. It is important to
know though we are all required to carry pen and paper. And I know Dean
talked about this before. There have been situations where people complained
the officer didn’t write things down, but we are at the basic level of
communication. One of the things I think we should address is the difference
between police officers and perhaps an EMT and a firefighter is we are also
called to situations that are potentially dangerous. Crimes. So we have
experience that.

>> Could we take a step back? I’m unable to read the screen.

>> Is that better?

>> Thank you.

>> There are things we do procedurally for all people that are human. And it
>> would be nice to be able to show a card at a traffic stop or an
>> interaction in the neighborhood as the card said. But prior to
>> establishing that communication we as police officers have jobs to do and
>> that job is to stay within our guidelines. It may be a dangerous
>> situation. There may be a situation where we can’t just start talking
>> again, although that may — and the way the conversation goes, it may be
>> a lead to the start. So it’s something that keep in mind. We are aware of
>> things to improve the communication. We try and teach those to the
>> officers, and we try and learn from each interaction as well as past
>> experience. Does that help?

(Applause).

>> I’ll get to you next.

Some people are in American Sign Language. Some are (inaudible) some people
depend on lip-reading, but we are a diverse community. So communication
might become more common. I doubt your officers would be able to have any
type of training to negotiate or communicate with somebody of minimal
language competency. And even interpreters who are certified often can’t
communicate with another individual. So when we talk about deaf-blind
individuals that’s another community that we serve. So we also have a person
who can sign but they might have a limited visual field. So they might walk
around and demonstrate because in an emergency, they might be able to — a
normal sighted person can see. But when you have a person who cannot with a
vision problem, minimal language accompanying the deafness then it might be
a more difficult problem that you have. And at the same time by not being
able to communicate to determine what is needed. So you might not be able to
communicate depending on that specific individual. So who is the person who
makes that discussion. And the person would need more.

(Pause).

>> Dean, thank you for the question. I am aware of the differences and of
>> the other officers here. I think it’s important to verify that something
>> like that is possible in an unusual situation, but in a given situation
>> that isn’t an emergency, is not exigent circumstances we can take time,
>> step back, and realize what communication obstacles were out there.

I think it’s been my experience in some forum that I attended more people
are concerned with the initial contact, that first few minutes. And if
you’re dealing with someone who’s deaf-blind or blind, hopefully they’re not
driving a car, so it won’t be a traffic stop.

(All laughing).

>> You know, all of a sudden, there’s lights in the back. In that situation
>> I’m not going to be looking for that person driving. Okay. If I’m called
>> to a park and someone is sitting in a chair, I can see their hands,
>> everything’s calm. And the only one there, perhaps they’re blind or
>> deaf-blind, it’s a different type of scenario than when we’re confronted
>> with something. Honestly we have to make a split second decision. That’s
>> why we need to treat all people in a vehicle in the same way. The New
>> York State law says a driver must obey the police officer by providing
>> their license. It doesn’t matter if the motorist wants to or prefers to
>> wait until we tell them why we stopped them. They’re not afforded that
>> decision. I mean it’s — they must provide us a license. That procedure
>> is in place.

From that point, we can escalate or deescalate the interaction depending on
what happens. But in terms getting specific with an individual’s sight or
limitations of sight, things like that, it’s hard to make a blanket policy.
So in terms of what the interaction is, it comes to a point where it’s calm,
we can proceed and get whatever resources are necessary. If it’s going to be
certified interpreter, if it’s going to be a specialized interpreter, those
are things that we’ll address as it happens. Does that make sense?

(Pause).

>> So you mean if a situation is calm that helps you make better
>> communication? Is that what you’re saying?

>> Absolutely.

>> Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

(Applause).

>> Hello, everyone. My name is (inaudible). I’ve had an experience twice in
>> my life and one situation was a cop was out of control and it became a
>> belligerent situation and another time I got pulled over and the cop was
>> very calm. So those are two situations that I’ve had in my life. And you
>> know, I had a different experience. Because I was in New York City. So I
>> had a chance to sit back and wonder why this is happening. It was
>> stressful in the area that it was happening, in the areas that you’re
>> surveying. And the type of stress that you are under-going on an everyday
>> basis that when you have a traffic stop that you need to take the moment.
>> Remember to be calm. You are carrying that stress onto every citizen that
>> you meet at every moment. For a woman in crisis it is very upsetting,
>> especially not having what you need to communicate. So you can have
>> self-control and self-restraint while you — the moment that you work
>> with me, I think that we’ll both get what we need. And the outside
>> pressures on a day-to-day basis. Everything that you are working with can
>> be different. You can provide some restraint I think that that’s when we
>> will have easier situations. The experience is great in the City of
>> Rochester it is tragic. And violent. So they’re different. So looking at
>> the nature of the cities, the difference, what is it that makes the
>> difference? Self-control, self restraint. And the ease of, you know, the
>> Police Department must have a lot of experience at RIT. But (inaudible)
>> thank you. Thank you for your time.

>> Does anybody have any questioners any comments?

>> All right. There was a police officer two days ago, on a main traffic
>> stop. ‘Cause I there are quite a few people that are deaf. Okay. And it’s
>> true but I’m sorry. And there’s two ways to think, okay. The people who
>> commit add burglary. If you have trouble communicating with people when
>> they speak because of the situation they encounter, a stop or the message
>> when we get them and see that, okay, sometimes unfortunately we have to
>> get there in order to concentration out. Okay? Like we have a cop who is
>> out of control. You have to control, in a normal voice when you come
>> across, okay, so that’s true, okay, we’re not saying — I’m not saying
>> that (inaudible). To situations where it is out of control, like the cop
>> situation. All right. I’ve been training for the last 8, nine years,
>> okay, and get training at the Academy in communicating with, you know,
>> the people who are hearing impaired. Okay? Sometimes we don’t always come
>> across as much as you may come across (inaudible) all right. We don’t
>> come across as being impaired as much as we come across as people who can
>> speak. We do have experience that comes to that. My recruits when I train
>> them, and this officer sitting back there, is to be with the person
>> you’re communicating with is able to communicate at all. It goes both
>> ways. We can’t hear what you’re saying and you can’t understand the sign
>> language. This is tense. Okay. This (inaudible) okay.

It is a communication code. If we can go ahead and communicate on paper, and
I know that it’s not using sign language, but unfortunately for some of us
that’s all we have to communicate until we can reach that training and get
the skills that you prefer us to have. All right? I’m sorry. Do you have a
question?

>> I hear what you’re saying and I understand your point, but what I want to
>> ask you tonight is if you can really control your anger, that you need to
>> control your most inner moment. This is not something that you can take
>> out on the citizens that you have. You need to get control of your own
>> emotions and anger. And stay calm. The city officer needs to be aware. I
>> don’t care whatever you are, you just have to try to control your
>> emotions first before you project to an individual. And that’s what I’m
>> trying to hopefully get across to you.

>> I agree with that.

>> Does she have a question for me?

>> You said that depends. What? How can you understand a person who’s deaf
>> who doesn’t understand the written language of English? This is a
>> misunderstanding that happens when I see with the language how can you
>> truly communicate with me? Wait. So deaf people quite often learn
>> American Sign Language. When you say that. What are you willing to do
>> about it?

>> I agree. Okay? My experiences, okay, I’m not saying that everyone who’s
>> deaf is able to write. But as my role with what I’ve done and the
>> experience I’ve had in the past is you have to keep the situation calm.
>> All right? When I, me, personally, when I have that happen with a
>> domestic, okay? I need to calm them down to communicate. Okay. I’m a
>> person who is able to lip-read. I’m trying to establish communication.
>> Sometimes that’s not the case. But the majority, I should say all of the
>> people I’ve encountered with are able to write and it’s worked out for me
>> and it’s worked out for them to me. I know they can’t always express
>> themselves on paper. It’s very difficult. That’s true. But it is very
>> complicated, what you’re trying to tell me and go from there.

(Applause).

>> We’ve got a lot of people. I have a question. Sandra. Written form is a
>> tool however it’s (inaudible) so whatever kind of communication I have at
>> the moment, or something about a person sharing the experience. That is
>> often times that deaf people will not want to write back and forth
>> because that can become a written document. Sometimes we do not become
>> aware of writing as a tool.

>> I’m sorry. And I’d also like to add to this (inaudible). Often police
>> officers also (inaudible) as well. Because it goes actually both ways. So
>> that is against both individuals.

>> I understand what you’re saying. And I think it’s important to remember
>> the context of this written document. If a person has been given a
>> Miranda warning, the Miranda rights, you’re familiar with that? Probably
>> from — you have the right to remain silent and those types of things, if
>> it’s an interpretation and a person has either waived the right to
>> counsel or they have counsel present if something becomes a written
>> statement, it will become evidence, and we will keep that as evidence.
>> And so if something past the Miranda rights is put down on paper, it can
>> and will be used against you. If you’re talking about conversation,
>> either as a information, a traffic stop, or you’re a victim or a witness,
>> that type of a thing, those papers are not necessarily kept. And if a
>> person were to request to take them and do it — you would like it done,
>> that would be fine.

The important part to remember is if it has become part of an investigation,
then those notes, either my notes or your notes, would become part of
whatever case we’re working on. Because often times if a person were aural
and they gave a verbal statement that might be transcribed onto paper and
that would be an interview between a detective and a suspect. So that would
be saved.

So if everything is in writing, we would, of course, have to save those. But
if it’s something you’re worried about, it’s a confidential thing, you want
advice from the police, or something like that, no. We would not save that.
And that would not be used against you. You’d be free to take those notes
with you. Does that answer your question?

And to Dean’s point of, again, we have to carry a book and a basically a pad
of paper and a pen, we use that for notes, they’re not even — that’s
conversation. We put down the date I’m working, for instance, the weather,
what car we’re riding, those type of things. Those things can be called into
question in a court case. But by and large, I mean, I have papers in there,
and they get thrown away, or if you give someone a note, not everything that
we write a saved. But, of course, if it is part of the investigation, it
would be. Does that make sense to you?

Ma’am?

>> My concern is that if you write there might be words I don’t understand
>> or the words in written format. So I don’t know about the form of
>> something. So (inaudible) when you use sign language, it is written, not
>> something that all people have done. So I hope that there is awareness
>> there.

>> Yes. Most definitely. Yes.

>> Okay.

>> Ma’am, did you want to say something?

>> (Inaudible) and I’m a nurse. But what they said, the leaders, when you
>> said at the beginning of the hearing — of the — when the people meet,
>> whether it’s traffic stops with the cops, the police officers, that’s the
>> most important you know time for being together. If there was, like
>> everybody knows that this means (inaudible). So what if there was
>> universal sign that where people because of the police officers or — if
>> you see my hand up front, I can’t grab assign. Right? So what if there
>> was just universal sign for deafness? I’m deaf, saying, you know, I don’t
>> know, maybe, you know, universal sign like for choking so immediately the
>> police officer would know that they’re deaf and they can maybe kind of
>> like maybe, I don’t know get.

>> At this point, and see one of the things that we do teach the officers is
>> the sign for deaf. And it’s deaf. And that’s the actual sign for deaf.

>> So.

>> On several occasions, I encountered people, and that’s the first thing
>> they said to me: I’m deaf.

>> I know myself, using sign language years ago for children I’ve forgotten
>> all my sign language. If you don’t use it every day, you forget it.

>> Right. Right.

>> (Inaudible).

(Pause).

>> Is that helpful?

>> I think it’s helpful. I think it’s more than helpful. They should use
>> that sign. That will be explored by the police officers if you’re going
>> to pursue a line of questioning to ensure that it is a deaf person
>> instead of someone just pretending to be deaf, and for the safety of the
>> police officer. So just be prepared for that. It’s a good starting point.
>> We will pursue it and actually see that you are deaf.

>> Any other comments?

>> We do have a line if you would like to make a comment come to the other
>> side.

>> Hi, my Robert is Robert Greenwald. My friend is taking the training in
>> the City of Rochester. He took it last spring. I believe that he might
>> have completed his training in March. I haven’t seen him in almost two
>> months. I know he is extremely busy. Now with that being said, my
>> question is: In the City of Rochester, you said there were 12 people who
>> can sign with people who are deaf, but most deaf people cover different
>> levels of sign language. So when you say that the officers don’t
>> understand everything, probably 75 percent needs to be repeated and
>> repeated and repeated. Is there any way that you can help people
>> including some deaf families who have hearing children, to improve this
>> in the population? Have you ever thought of that, as well as that
>> respect.

>> My daughter was in the hospital last month. She was with an interpreter.
>> And there was one person in the hospital who needed sign language and the
>> interpreter there didn’t understand what this patient needed. With my
>> daughter being deaf and an observer in the room was able to help and
>> support that situation. My daughter being included in that facility being
>> used as a vehicle. So I think in this population, children and adults,
>> something you need to think about. We have mentioned here this evening
>> something that you want to ticket or write a citation for. And what way
>> you are going to do that, if you provide somebody who speaks the same
>> language. At the same time in the population to have somebody there with
>> natural language abilities that you can go onto a list, not necessarily
>> calling an interpreter but calling one of your own, you know, as a
>> natural resource to pull from it somebody you could attract in the Police
>> Department. Somebody who understands communicating naturally. An
>> interpreter is in another vehicle who may be able to help. At the same
>> time, it’s often said that we who have training and provide training, and
>> if you bring in an officer who has deaf awareness, hey, do you
>> (inaudible) a person whose mother and father are deaf. CODA. Child of
>> deaf adult. CODA. For CODA. The child of deaf adult.

>> We recruit individuals (inaudible). In the Police Department, so this is
>> an opportunity for recruiting.

>> Well, my son’s capable. My son is capable. My son’s — my son is somebody
>> that you know I haven’t seen him in two months, so I don’t know where he
>> is right now.

>> But I’ll give you my business card when we leave, and he — if he is
>> interested, certainly, but he could be a resource tool. We are looking
>> for capable police officers, and somebody in the Police Department. He
>> can bring that to the table.

>> Dean. Sorry. Sorry. I know that the Department of Justice, their own
>> models when you look at deaf awareness. They can become police officers,
>> are their restrictions on that? And it would be nice to have a deaf
>> person on your staff and lots of benefits actually of hiring a deaf
>> person and a deaf person you have someone who can be a part of the
>> machine. Just another opportunity to put someone there.

>> I agree. And again, I think this part is building the relationship
>> between us so that we get those applicants. In my 23-year career I think
>> we had one deaf employee, so it wasn’t an actual permanent employee. And
>> the it raised the awareness of our employees so much it sparked interest
>> to learn sign language so they can communicate with this individual. It
>> brought out the best and eventually introduced us to people and put them
>> in more areas. But I think specifically to what the specifics here, level
>> would be, I can get the requirement that the State puts out that we have
>> to follow.

>> Hello. My name is Sandra. And I’d like to bring up a point about CODA.
>> Not everyone can take on that job. I believe when we’ve had an
>> interpreter you might need an interpreter and not a CODA. There was a
>> scenario that came up. And it can happen anywhere. A car accident. It can
>> happen at a — it can happen anywhere. Often we’re faced with a situation
>> where there’s an officer, and you realize that there are deaf people
>> around. Often there are hearing churn around, and you use the children to
>> communicate with the adults. And I wonder do you use that in Spanish
>> speaking families also as well? Do you train the children to help with
>> the communication with the adults in the environment? And what are other
>> alternatives to provide different solutions because the obligation of the
>> child is something (inaudible).

(Applause).

>> I think we need to find a way, the first thing is if they’re in a
>> situation with a Spanish-speaking individual, we will use other family
>> members in an attempt to help us with the situation, we do use children
>> for individuals who are Spanish and cannot communicate with us. The
>> situation in the community, we have sensitivity to trying (inaudible) in
>> a certain situation, we have tried to understand the situation as quickly
>> as possible. That’s part of our job, that’s part of our training. And so
>> we may, depending on what the situation was, because the sensitivity of
>> the situation, we may turn to a family member. We ask you, because the
>> officers are not aware of that, they should try to know that you may not
>> want that person who is a family member to interpret for you. There are
>> other effective means of communication are tried with you. Does that
>> answer your question?

>> When you talk about a nine-year-old or a ten-year-old (inaudible) the
>> environment. And with children. Because when you think about somebody
>> with their child, they don’t necessarily (inaudible).

>> Absolutely. It depends on, like I said, the situation. Each situation
>> that we come across we kind of have to be creative with. No situation is
>> ever the same twice. So when we get in a situation we try to assess the
>> situation as best we can, and then try to utilize other resources that we
>> have in order to try to come to some resolution. And not only do we make
>> the best choice. So, again, in is situation, you know, I would hope to
>> our officer would not use a 7, 8, nine-year-old child in that situation.
>> And again, it’s the kind of situation it is.

>> Dean. Well, I have to say we’ve got a very short time left in our program
>> this evening. So I know there are several people who are left to speak so
>> if you could keep your comments as short as possible, short as well, we
>> can also write down our comments and we can have some follow-up later
>> with communication through E-mail to the individuals.

(Pause).

>> Well, I guess — I can only imagine that you have a stressful job and are
>> under stress every day. We think about the stress that you feel. I’d like
>> to know when you are faced with a situation, I often get an attitudinal
>> response like, yeah, right. As if I’m hearing something, I might be able
>> to talk but your attitude often is in my face and so even if I can talk I
>> might be not be able to hear you. So you said earlier you might check to
>> see we’re deaf. But I can put myself out there as well as you can put
>> yourself out there. I also know my rights and I’ve seen officers with
>> really terrible attitudes, and I lose the respect at that moment. And I
>> can’t tolerate that happening with that officer. That often the officer’s
>> in the Rochester area have attitudes on deaf people and if I’m
>> experiencing it, I know that somebody else is experiencing it, too. So I
>> would like for you to think about this because I’m going to have to try
>> to put myself out there and it’s hard for me as well as, you know, I get
>> pulled over or there are situations, I’m going to look for a make or
>> break situation for me. What am I to do? I’m not going to sit back and be
>> confident if you guys have attitudes toward me. You need to recognize
>> that I am an individual.

(Pause).

>> I’d like to respond to what Sandra was saying when you talk about using
>> the children. To be honest with you. I’m married, then divorced. And have
>> become a very, very (inaudible) victim. When you look at the children,
>> they were too young to be pulled into this. This police officer in our
>> home. It was a tragic incident. My children got involved and tried to
>> participate. And now I will share with you how that changed them forever
>> in a bad way. Because of the incident they had to see in their lives. I
>> had marriage problems. And it’s so sad. My (inaudible), and my ex-that
>> this just tragic incident changed them forever. So when you pool
>> children, hear my story and next time you go into a home make sure that
>> you’re not using the children because it is detrimental. I wanted to
>> share that.

>> Dean.

>> We still have more people on the floor. And would you like to make one
>> brief comment.

>> Hello. My name is Ginny lake, and I moved here from Florida about a month
>> ago. I lived with my mother for a short time. (Inaudible) in my own
>> family. My niece is pretty hard-of-hearing. She can hear a little bit.
>> She’s got this medical, mental (inaudible). So police officers came into
>> my home. It was difficult interpreting in that situation. The children
>> were told to be used as a vehicle for helping communication. You know,
>> I’m an adult. I’m an experienced adult. I would rather have that
>> communication directed toward me. In looking in any matter in getting the
>> children out of the way. So this is something that we could drive this
>> point home to you. I don’t know what happened in that house, I had to
>> follow up from your part.

>> Dean: I’d also like to add one final, maybe even two final questions. I’m
>> not sure of the time you have, but I’ll at least give you one. There was
>> one person who wanted to know if you could explain (inaudible).

>> Yes. The grief advance process really depends a lot on when and what is
>> taking place. We are using that for a traffic stop. So if you feel the
>> belief that you have been in contact with a member who has violated the
>> policy, or something of that nature it is very important to contact
>> the — we can call in 911, the Police Department, which would put you in
>> touch with a supervisor. And I think that’s very important. The sooner it
>> happens, the better. Once again, I believe it’s important to make a
>> report as quickly as possible. And not leave — it’s important to get the
>> information right a wait a minute a lot of things are important.
>> Witnesses. When the officer was working. Who the officer is. And who is
>> making the complaint. And perhaps in talking to the immediate supervisor
>> of that officer. Those things are very important. And certainly you can
>> go home if you wish and contact (inaudible) also calling 311 is an
>> option. There are many places we can E-mail. We can — you know, simply
>> contact an individual. There is always someone there that can take a
>> complaint. And refer to the supervisor at any location. And so that’s
>> basically how you provide a report. You go to the police building.
>> Obviously the public safety building or office of professional standards.
>> There are things you can do.

>> Are there interpreters there?

>> We can contact someone and make sure that we have someone to assist any
>> member of the department, any member of the community. To make sure of
>> that.

Any other questions? About the process?

>> That’s it.

>> I just want to take an opportunity, we’re closing this evening. That the
>> Police Department information and obviously for the hearing — difficult
>> in hearing community. But I’d like to give you that. It gives you a very
>> good snapshot of things that are important. Here are the numbers. And
>> that it tells you also where our facilities are located. It has phone
>> numbers there as well. I think this is very helpful information and I
>> would encourage all of you to take one of those prior to leaving this
>> evening.

And if I can make two closing comments, I just wanted to thank you and all
of your staff and certainly the staff here at this wonderful facility. And
thank you all of you community members for supporting us this evening. We
have a group of men, women who are working hard and exceedingly hard every
single day. And as I started out my comments this evening, we are not
perfect. But we’re certainly trying to do the best. And I can tell you that
I am involved and I am associated and this is my third department, and I can
tell you without hesitation that this is the best department that I’ve ever
been included in. So overall we may have some minor problems and sometimes
they’re not so minor. I think what’s important that when these men and women
make thousands of contact in a year, we get very, very small complaints, and
that says something in an environment that is very stressful from time to
time.

We go out, and we try to hire the most intelligent, the bravest, the most
courageous individuals in the community. And I think they do a very, very
good job. And once again we do occasionally make mistakes. And it’s
important for us to have forums like this so we can talk, so that we can
learn and so that we can walk away understanding what is important to you.
And many times the police, we don’t hear a lot of thank you very much da,
da, da, da, but that’s okay. We’re here for one reason, to make this a safe
community. And as we leave this evening, I just want to thank every member
of the panel. I’m extremely proud of the members of this department. And I
want to thank all of you. And just keep in mind.

(Applause).

>> We want you to be satisfied with us. And thank you very much. And have a
>> safe evening.

(Applause).

>> I would like to thank all of the people in the program this evening. We
>> all need to remember that we are all humans. We are under stress, and I
>> know that you all understand that and when there is a problem, please
>> contact us, the Committee. We’ve got lots of papers. We can write down
>> all the questions you have. And get that to the Police Department, and
>> they will provide their answers back to us. So thank you all for
>> participating in the evening.

(Applause).

>> And I thank our interpreters this evening.

>>

(Applause).

(Meeting concluded.)

9:10 pm