Deaf New Yorkers Get Sign Language Link To NYPD As Program Expands

EAST VILLAGE, NY – The New York Police Department its continuing its rollout of a pilot program that provides deaf citizens with more ways to communicate with police officers, slowly adding options for a population that was previously left voiceless in the face of law enforcement in New York City.

The program, which launched in three precincts earlier this year, is expanding to four more in the coming weeks, according to the NYPD.

The pilot program began in the department's 9th precinct, which includes the East Village, in the 115th precinct in Queens and the 121st precinct in Staten Island. It is now expanding to four additional precincts: the 26th precinct, which includes the Upper West Side, the 32nd precinct in Harlem and the 42nd and 44th precincts in the Bronx.

It will provide those areas with on-call sign language interpreters who can respond if a deaf citizen is stopped by police or comes to an officer with a problem. If more immediate assistance is needed, officers in those precincts will also have tablets that use a video-conferencing system to connect them with licensed interpreters.

"The current commands had positive experiences using the tablet-based sign language interpreters, and we hope this expansion will give us a better idea of the need for the tablet-based, as well as the in-person, interpretation services," the NYPD said in a statement to Patch.

Antony Gemmell, who works with the Deaf Justice Coalition, has consulted with the NYPD for years to help develop the pilot program. Gemmell, who met with police recently to discuss the program's initial results, said no citizens had yet used the on-call interpreters available to them.

"It sounds like things have worked smoothly so far with the tablets and we’re sort of watching the space to see how things go with the in person interpreting once that it requested," Gemmell told Patch.

The first phase of the pilot launched in April after years of deaf citizens and deaf advocacy groups pleading with law enforcement for better methods of communication between officers and deaf citizens. The communication barrier has proved hazardous to both victims of crimes and those suspected of crimes, deaf advocates say, because neither group is able to easily communicate their situation to police during an emergency.

The city has settled numerous lawsuits from deaf citizens who were handcuffed and unable to communicate with their arresting officer. (For more information on this and other neighborhood stories, subscribe to Patch to receive daily newsletters and breaking news alerts.)

In 2011, Staten Island resident Diana Williams, who is deaf and unable to speak, was arrested and kept in custody for nearly 24 hours without being provided access to an interpreter. The city settled her lawsuit for $750,000. The city did not admit to violating Williams' civil rights as part of the settlement.

In a separate case in 2015, officers cuffed Opal Williams as she was leaving Manhattan Family Court after a custody proceeding. Williams, who is deaf and speech-impaired, was not told why she was being arrested or provided with access to an interpreter for nearly 21 hours while she was kept in a holding cell, she told the New York Daily News. The city settled a lawsuit from her for $100,000.

Whether the pilot program will expand citywide remains unclear. The NYPD says it will continue to evaluate the program as it is used by more citizens. Nearly 200,000 residents in New York City are deaf or hard-of-hearing.

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