DC police unit trained in ASL to speak with Deaf community

A unit of D.C. police consisting of officers who know American Sign Language allows the Deaf community to interact with police in that language. Officer Myra Jordan started the Metropolitan Police Department’s Deaf and Hard of Hearing Liaison Unit 21 years ago.

“Having this unit helps not to revictimize victims again, deaf victims,” Jordan said.

After 34 years on the force, she knows retirement is near and she wants to ensure the unit is staffed with younger officers who can carry on her work for years to come.

Gallaudet University graduate Officer Jay Pomare has been on the force for a year. He is the son of two deaf parents, so American Sign Language is his first language.

“When I came out the womb, my parents are signing to me, and I'm being receptive to everything that they're signing,” he said. “I had to go to school and go to speech therapy, and then that's how I learned how to talk.”

“I've always been a mediator, and really, that's what a liaison is, a mediator,” Pomare said. “Having two deaf parents, I've always mediated from the hearing world to the deaf world.”

Jordan sees the future of the unit when she looks at Pomare.

“I see his deaf heart, meaning, yes, he knows the language, he knows the culture, but he also have a deaf heart,” she said. “He loves the community, and that's what's important.”

Pomare has seen the difference it can make when the victim of a crime is able to communicate with police in their first language.

“It feels like a sense of relief,” he said. “They see it and they feel like, 'Oh, perfect, I don't have to really struggle while I'm already experiencing a traumatizing or bad experience.'”

A spokesperson for the National Association of the Deaf said often people who are deaf or hard of hearing are arrested for failure to comply with verbal orders.