How to make Police Officers aware of people with Intellectual Disabilities

Abstract

The main purpose of this article is to elaborate how police officers can be educated on how to handle individuals with intellectual disability in the criminal system. The article advocates for these individuals as a way of respecting them and making sure that they get the same opportunities in the legal system by getting fair trials.

Recognizing intellectual disability in a person may be challenging at time. If there were proper guidelines of how to recognize such people with disability would be more helpful rather than just assuming that they are normal people acting stupid. Mostly the police officers receive little or no education or training o how to identify such persons. Some of the intellectual disabilities are mostly hidden and they require certain training in order to identify them. Generally, the information relating to intellectual disability is limited as they are crisis during the operation of criminal justice with persons who have intellectual disability (Crowell, 2016).

Hidden disabilities relate to a person’s brain as there are difficulties in mental tasks such as reasoning, planning, judgment or even abstract thinking. There are other development disabilities which include autism, cerebral palsy, and epilepsy among other disorders that occurs during the development period of an individual (In Rubin, 2016).  There are trivial limitations that are as a result of intellectual disability in both adaptive behavior and intellectual functioning. They normally have difficulties in processing any kind of information, generalizing any information and problems in solving practical cases.

In particular, individuals who have developmental or, intellectual disabilities pose a real challenge in the judicial system as a majority of them have mild problems (In Rubin, 2016). A vast number of these individuals who have intellectual disabilities that cannot be recognized by an outside appearance create challenges whether they are suspects or victims. Mild problems do not mean that they are insignificant but there are others that are more severe compared to others. Most of these individuals are likely to be the victims, witness rather than the offenders (Grant, 2010).

Police officers can be able to identify some of the hidden rational disabilities by trying to look deeper. This is by identifying the behavior of the individual and not the appearance. These process can be assisted when some characteristics such as  an individual acting like he can understand when in reality he cannot, wanting to hide the disability to the officer, very sensitive sounds, touch and lights from this individuals are identified (Grant, 2010). Some of these persons may appear nervous or anxious when dealing with the police officers, not be able to understand what entails the legal concepts and being unable to have or maintain a direct contact with the officer. By identifying these characteristics the police officers stands at a better position to identify the individuals with rational disabilities.

Going slow on the individuals may prevent the officers from a potential crisis. By having a supervisor or a support staff may help in identifying such an individual. Speaking to the person in a normal more calm way and by the avoidance of confrontational tones maybe of use to avoid such crisis (Gawrylowicz et al, 2013). A police officer may also restrain from unnecessary touching, avoiding of relying so much on using the weapons and without asking so many questions will help in preventing the crisis that mostly befall the police officers and the individuals with the rational disabilities (Sellars, 2011). A questioning mind such as what is going on here will help the police officer be able some of the uncommon characteristics that the individual displays.

Police interviews are a norm in the criminal arena. In order to accommodate individuals with intellectual disabilities, they should be approached with caution. Currently, there are no special provisions in the criminal procedure to deal with such persons as they are few of them who are suspected to have committed a crime (Sellars, 2011). Despite there being a none existing system to deal with such suspects, individuals with rational disabilities are not considered to have a certain influence towards the operation of the criminal and the common law particularly regarding the discretion of the confessional evidence.

There should be standard caution applied by all police to administer questioning. This will help in gathering all the information that is required due to the simplified caution. Although commentators have argued that by the use of simplified caution the suspect with the rational disability maybe improperly comprehended which may result in the elimination of all the records of the interview regarding the suspect (Emerson, 2008). Most of the suspects are un aware of what is happening to them there is the need to provide them with independent persons who can make the judgment and the reasoning for them. Such persons have limited concentration and memory difficulties that make them fail to understand the legal rights and the right to remain silent will help the police officers I understanding them.

Police officers should be trained to communicate well with individuals who have intellectual disabilities. This will make the officers be in a better position of understanding them and what kind of technique to use when they have such individuals. They should try to respond in a manner that they can understand well and interact with their family members or professions who can facilitate and make the process smooth and fair for both (Hassiotis, Hall & Barron, 2013). Police social interaction should be enhanced so that they can be able to understand the individual naturally as they can watch them and analyze them at a distance which will facilitate their working when they come into contact with such persons (Emerson, 2008). Police officers should also engage in building rapports the individuals as this will help them identify the best way to communicate to them (Crowell, 2016). It would also be better if the police officers avoid using jargons, long sentences and embrace slow and clear words that are simple for such individuals to understand. Being friendly with them will be useful to the process and also emphasizing on key words will be useful.

The target audience for this presentation is the police officers, the judicial system workers, teachers, intellectual disability co-workers. In most cases, teachers have the basic skills of identifying students with intellectual disabilities as they teach them. The presentation focuses on them as they engage them in their daily lives due to the numerous contacts they have.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Outline of the presentation

How to make Police Officers aware of people with Intellectual Disabilities

Abstract

• The main purpose of this article is to elaborate how police officers can be educated
• Individuals with intellectual disability in the criminal system
• Legal system and fair trials for intellectually disabled

Intellectual disability

• Recognizing intellectual disability in a person may be challenging at time
• Development disabilities includes autism, cerebral palsy, and epilepsy
• Mild problems do not mean that they are insignificant but there are others that are more severe compared to others
• Police officers can be able to identify some of the hidden rational disabilities by trying to look deeper
• Going slow on the individuals may prevent the officers from potential crisis
• Being friendly with them will be useful to the process and also emphasizing on key words will be useful.

 

 

Target audience

• Adults between 10-60 years
• Police officers in all uniforms
• Co-workers in all departments
• Family members
• Persons with intellectual disability of all ages

 

 

 

 

 

 Reference

Crowell, H. (2016). The Writing Is on the Wall: How the Briseno Factors Create an Unacceptable Risk of Executing Persons with Intellectual Disability. Texas Law Review, 94(4), 743-784.

Emerson, E. (2008). Clinical psychology and people with intellectual disabilities. Hoboken, N.J: Wiley.

Gawrylowicz, J., Gabbert, F., Carson, D., Lindsay, W. R., & Hancock, P. B. (2013). Face Recognition and Description Abilities in People with Mild Intellectual Disabilities. Journal Of Applied Research In Intellectual Disabilities, 26(5), 435-446.

Grant, G. (2010). Learning disability: A life cycle approach. Maidenhead: McGraw Hill/Open University Press.

Hassiotis, A., Hall, I., & Barron, D. A. (2013). Intellectual disability psychiatry: A practical handbook. Hoboken, N.J: Wiley.

In Rubin, L., In Merrick, J., In Greydanus, D. E., & In Patel, D. R. (2016). Health care for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities across the lifespan.

Sellars, C. (2011). Risk assessment in people with learning disabilities. Chichester, West Sussex: BPS Blackwell/Wiley.